Nigel Si­mon

Buoyed by their slim 1-0 win over host An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, T&T So­ca War­riors will meet St Lu­cia in their sec­ond in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly match in three days at the An­tigua Recre­ation Ground, St John's, from 4.45 pm to­day. On Sun­day, So­ca War­riors' stand-in cap­tain and De­fence Force strik­er, De­von Jorsling fired in a 70th-minute item to hand the So­ca War­riors a vic­to­ry. This af­ter T&T goal­keep­er Jan-Michael Williams de­nied the host from go­ing ahead by sav­ing a 57th minute penal­ty from Ran­dolph Bur­ton and two ef­forts from for­mer T&T-based strik­er Pe­ter By­ers.

The win end­ed a three-match win­less streak for the So­ca War­riors which be­gan with a 3�1 loss at home to Ja­maica on Au­gust 11, fol­lowed by a 3�0 away de­feat to Pana­ma on Sep­tem­ber 7 in Pana­ma City and a dis­ap­point­ing 0�0 draw away to Be­lize in Bel­mopan Sep­tem­ber 9. The So­ca War­riors' last win was a 4-1 vic­to­ry against An­tigua & Bar­bu­da at the Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya on Ju­ly 21, with Jorsling scor­ing a dou­ble. The win over An­tigua & Bar­bu­da was the ninth for the So­ca War­riors in ten meet­ings be­tween both coun­tries and the first in St John's. Yes­ter­day, the So­ca War­riors squad held a light work­out ses­sion at the same venue ahead of its meet­ing with St Lu­cia, on­ly the fifth be­tween the two coun­tries.

Sur­pris­ing­ly, the St Lu­cians hold the edge in head-to-head re­sults against the So­ca War­riors, with two wins from four match­es. The So­ca War­riors' lone win came 15 years ago, 5-0 in Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica dur­ing the Shell Caribbean Cup com­pe­ti­tion. The team will re­turn home to­mor­row be­fore leav­ing for an­oth­er friend­ly on Fri­day against Guyana on Sun­day in George­town. The lo­cal unit will con­tin­ue its Dig­i­cel Caribbean Cup prepa­ra­tions with two more match­es, first at home on Oc­to­ber 6 against a yet to be named team and then, away to Ja­maica in Kingston on Oc­to­ber 10. The clash with the Reg­gae Boyz will be the fi­nal match ahead of T&T's host­ing of the Sec­ond Round of the Dig­i­cel Cup qual­i­fy­ing group which will al­so in­volve Haiti from No­vem­ber 2-6. The top two teams from the four-team groups will qual­i­fy for the Fi­nals to be con­test­ed in Ja­maica.

T&T squad

Play­ers:

Kevin Gra­ham, Jan-Michael Williams, Ke­ston Williams, Kern Cu­pid, Ak­lie Ed­wards, Hughton Hec­tor, Daneil Cyrus, Jesse Stew­art, Jo­evin Jones, Ja­son Mar­cano, Ju­ma Clarence, Lester Pelti­er, Clyde Leon, Den­sill Theobald, Ataulla Guer­ra, De­von Jorsling, Kevon Carter, An­tho­ny Wolfe, Ker­ron Cum­mings, Ja­mal Gay.

Tech­ni­cal staff:

Rus­sell Lat­apy (coach), David Muham­mad (man­ag­er), Pe­ter Ram­per­sad (as­sis­tant man­ag­er), Ross Rus­sell (as­sis­tant coach), Or­lan­do Grif­fith (train­er), Lin­coln Phillips (tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor), Michael Mau­rice (goal­keep­ing coach), Es­mond O' Bri­an (equip­ment man­ag­er), Dave Isaac (phys­io­ther­a­pist),