A few hours af­ter be­ing knocked off the top po­si­tion in the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL) by De­fence Force on Thurs­day night, AC Port of Spain re­sumed as the leader by beat­ing Cen­tral FC 3-2 at the Phase II Recre­ation Ground in La Hor­quet­ta.

In Thurs­day’s sec­ond match of a dou­ble­head­er, the men from the cap­i­tal city pro­duced an­oth­er com­mand­ing per­for­mance to earn the three points, de­spite a fight­ing Cen­tral FC which end­ed the match-up with two goals.

As ex­pect­ed, the Port of Spain team forged ahead ear­ly from John-Paul Rochford in the 37th minute. De­spite the AC Port of Spain’s dom­i­nance all sea­son long, the Cen­tral Sharks, at fifth on the stand­ings, were out to fight, ev­i­denced by their equal­is­ing goal from Keron Cum­mings in the 44th minute from the penal­ty spot.

It was the start that the Cen­tral men, de­mol­ished by La Hor­quet­ta Rangers 6-1 a week ago, were hop­ing for.

Lat­er, they took the lead for the first time in the match, cour­tesy of Ke­sean St Rose’s 66th-minute goal.

How­ev­er, the men from the cap­i­tal city fought back valiant­ly for the equalis­er in the 69th minute from Jamoul Fran­cois. Che Ben­ny sealed the win in the 71st minute with a thun­der­ous free­kick that flashed past the goalie for the win.

AC Port of Spain will next face Cunu­pia FC at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um in Mal­abar, Ari­ma. A win will as­sure them the top spot head­ing in­to the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Shield, while a bat­tle will take place for the sec­ond spot be­tween Club San­do (41 points) and De­fence Force (43 points).

The sec­ond-place team will al­so con­test the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Shield, while the team that fin­ish­es third will play in the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Cup.

Mean­while, there were al­so wins for Po­lice FC, 3-1 over Prison Ser­vice FC at the St James Bar­racks and Point Fortin Civic, who pre­vailed over Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 3-0 at the La Hor­quet­ta Recre­ation Ground.

Tal­ent­ed na­tion­al mid­field­er Jo­evin Jones marked his re­turn to lo­cal foot­ball with a goal in the 75th minute, which spear­head­ed the Po­lice win­ning re­sult.

Thurs­day’s re­sults

Po­lice FC 3 (Nathaniel Per­ouse 43 own goal, Jo­ev­in­Jones 75th, Kadeem Hutchin­son 90+6) vs Prison Ser­vices FC 1 (Akiem Bib­by Bai­ley 70th)

AC PoS 3 (John-Paul Rochford 37th, Jamoul Fran­cois 69th, Che Ben­ny 71st) vs Cen­tral FC 2 (Keron Cum­mings 44th, Ke­sean St Rose 66th)

Point Fortin Civic 3 (Wes­ley John 9th, Tyrell Em­manuel 28th, Shack­iel Hen­ry 86th) vs Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 0

De­fence Force 2 (Dwight Quin­tero 35th, Hashim Ar­cia 90+2) vs Club San­do 0

Rangers 4 (Nathaniel Gar­cia 29th, Ju­nior As­soon 31st, Daniel David 46th, Tyrik Lee 90+3) vs Cunu­pia FC 1 (Luke Bou­caud 35th)

W Con­nec­tion 2 (Neil Ben­jamin 13th, Jah­malee Bar­clay 90+4) vs Jabloteh 2 (Kevon Wood­ley 45+1, 59th)

STAND­INGS

TEAM*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS

1*AC PoS*17*15*0*2*48*13*35*45

2*De­fence Force*17*14*1*2*40*11*29*43

3*Club San­do*17*13*2*2*36*16*20*41

4*Rangers*17*12*1*3*49*19*30*37

5*Po­lice FC*16*8*1*7*30*27*3*25

6*Cen­tral FC*17*8*1*8*30*32*-2*25

7*W Con­nec­tion*17*5*4*8*17*23*-6*19

8*Point Fortin Civic*16*4*3*9*12*20*-8*15

9*Mor­vant Cale­do­nia*16*3*2*11*17*40*-23*11

10*Prison Ser­vice*17*3*2*12*10*42*-32*11

11*San Juan Jaboloteh*17*2*3*12*19*39*-20*9

12*Cunu­pia FC*17*2*2*13*10*36*-26*8