Striker Jerrel Britto scored the lone goal as defending Digicel T&T Pro League champions, DirecTV W Connection eked out a 1-0 victory over Japs North East Stars at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya on Tuesday night.
Britto's decisive header in the 31st minute off a Kurt Frederick cross, beat the glove of goalkeeper Cleon John, and smashed into underside of the crossbar before bouncing into the net for a 1-0 lead which his team held onto to climb to 20 points from ten matches, three behind Central FC which had a chance to extend the lead back to six points when it faced Caledonia AIA at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva last night.
At Macoya though, Britto and his team should have won by a wider margin as he was denied
in the fifth minute and struck over bar in the 18th minute, as well as going inches too high of a second goal in the 32nd minute while Stars also had two early tries from Kennedy Hinkson.
In addition to Britto, national defender Alvin Jones also tried his luck from distance with a free-kick that caused John some problems while midfielder Hashim Arcia poked wide three minutes before the break to keep Stars in the contest.
The second half was more of the same for W Connection as Arcia rattled the cross bar from distance in the 76th minute while in stoppage time goalkeeper John pulled off two excellent saves to deny substitutes Akeem Garcia and Devaughn Elliot.
The Stars\ custodian first gloved Garcia's attempt onto the cross bar and from the rebound, he stretched full length to push Elliot's strike wide.
Despite the dismal night in the front of goal, W Connection got the deserved win and was expected to be back in action again last night against National Super League outfit Real Maracas in the preliminary round of the T&T Football Association FA Trophy competition at Couva from 8pm.
This after W Connection � four-time winners and defending FA Trophy champions � was drawn in the 12-team preliminary round along with fellow Pro League clubs Defence Force and Pt Fortin Civic.
In the other two Pro League matches contested on Tuesday night, Play Whe San Juan Jabloteh travelled to Pt Fortin Civic and came away with a 2-1 triumph at the Mahaica Oval while Police got two second-half penalties from captain Todd Ryan to earn a similar 2-1 win against cellar-placed St Ann's Rangers.
Down at Mahaica, T&T Pro League all-time leading goalscorer carried his season tally to a league best seven and 129 goals overall when he opened the scoring for Jabloteh in the third minute.
However, Pt Fortin levelled in the 17th minute through midfielder Andre Toussaint before Jamaican Adrian Reid snatched winner for the visitors, seven minutes from the final whistle.
And at the St James Police Barracks, Rangers went ahead in the 29th through Sedale Mc Lean in the 29th, only for Ryan to convert penalties in the 61st and 80th minutes.
results
Tuesday's Digicel Pro League results:
Jabloteh 2 (Kerry Baptiste 3rd, Adrian Reid 83rd) vs Pt Fortin Civic 1 (Andre Toussaint 17th)
Police 2 (Todd Ryan 61st pen, 80th pen) vs St Ann's Rangers 1 (Sedale Mc Lean 29th)
W Connection 1 (Jerrel Britto 31st) vs North East Stars 0
standings?
Current Digicel T&T Pro League standings:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
Central FC 10 7 2 1 28 8 23
W Conn' 10 6 2 2 21 6 20
D' Force 10 5 2 3 16 14 17
NEast Stars 11 5 2 4 9 7 17
Jabloteh 11 4 4 3 16 16 16
Police 11 3 5 3 15 21 14
Pt F'tin Civic 11 3 2 6 19 20 11
Caledonia 9 3 2 4 15 19 11
Rangers 11 0 1 10 8 35 1?