NIGEL SI­MON

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

nigel.si­mon@guardian.co.tt

De­fence Force was crowned win­ners of Group Two of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League Tier II fol­low­ing a 1-1 draw away to Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed at St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege Ground in West­moor­ings on Sat­ur­day.

Af­ter a goal­less first 45 min­utes, the Army/Coast Guard com­bi­na­tion took the lead when Ca­den Tre­strail volleyed home af­ter the Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin de­fence failed to clear a right-sided cen­tre from Theo Crovador in the 53rd minute.

But, with nine min­utes left in the match, Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin sal­vaged a point thanks to vet­er­an de­fend­er Keion Goodridge.

De­spite drop­ping points for a sec­ond match straight, the Kelshall Alexan­der-coached De­fence Force moved to an unas­sail­able 41 points from 16 match­es, with two left to play, 13 points ahead of sec­ond-placed Union Hall Unit­ed, who can on­ly reach 40 points if they win their re­main­ing four match­es in the hunt for a top three fin­ish to qual­i­fy for the ‘Big Six’.

Third-placed Cen­tral Soc­cer World has 24 points and three match­es left, while Guaya Unit­ed and MIC Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed have 21 and 20 points, re­spec­tive­ly, from 14 and 13 match­es and can on­ly at­tain a max­i­mum of 33 and 35 points should they win their re­main­ing en­coun­ters.

The two oth­er match­es in Group Two, card­ed for Sat­ur­day, Club San­do against Cen­tral Soc­cer World at Bal­main, Cou­va, and Evo­lu­tion FC at home to Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed at Ed­in­burgh 500 Recre­ation Ground, Ch­agua­nas, were both post­poned due to the in­clement weath­er and poor field con­di­tions.

In Group One, Ay­don Caruth scored a hat-trick to lead Po­lice FC to an 8-1 whip­ping of Bethel Unit­ed at the Ken Cooke Ground.

Caruth got his goals in the tenth, 89th and 90+2 min­utes, while Clint Hospedales added a dou­ble in the 70th and 87th, and the trio of Qualan­son Archibald (33rd), J’Deem Par­ris (42nd), and Re­al Di­di­er (55th) got one each to can­cel out Bethel Unit­ed’s lone re­ply from Sher­lon Math­ew in the 68th.

The win lift­ed Po­lice FC to 29 points from 12 match­es, three points be­hind lead­ers Mal­abar Young Stars, who have played a match more, while the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T Pa­tri­ots sit third with 22 points from 12 match­es, a point ahead of Queen’s Park Crick­et Club, fol­lowed by de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Harlem Strik­ers with 20.

RE­SULTS

Sat­ur­day (May 17)

Group One

Po­lice FC 8 (Ay­don Caruth 10th, 89th, 90+2, Clint Hospedales 70th, 87th, Qualan­son Archibald 33rd, J’Deem Par­ris 42nd, Re­al Di­di­er 55th) vs Bethel Unit­ed 1 (Sher­lon Math­ew 68th)

Group Two

Club San­do vs CSW - post­poned due to in­clement weath­er

Evo­lu­tion FC vs Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed - post­poned due to in­clement weath­er

Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed 1 (Keion Goodridge 81st) vs De­fence Force 1 (Ca­den Tre­strail 53rd)

Lat­est Tier II stand­ings

Group One

Pos Teams P W L D F A GD Pts

1 Mal­abar Young Stars 13 10 1 2 27 16 11 32

2 Po­lice FC 12 9 1 2 35 14 21 29

3 UTT Pa­tri­ots 12 6 2 4 21 8 13 22

4 QPCC FC 11 6 2 3 21 11 10 21

5 Harlem Strik­ers 13 6 5 2 27 16 11 20

6 Carn­bee/Mt Pleas­ant 8 5 3 0 19 10 9 15

7 Prison Ser­vice 13 4 7 2 19 19 0 14

8 Sideys SC 9 2 6 1 9 17 -8 7

9 Bethel SC 10 1 6 3 8 23 -8 6

10 RSSR FC 10 1 7 2 6 23-17 5

11 Laven­tille Utd 11 0 10 1 11 46 -35 1

Group Two

Pos Teams P W L D F A GD Pts

1 De­fence Force FC 16 13 1 2 48 13 35 41

2 Union Hall Utd 14 8 2 4 35 12 23 28

3 CSW FC 15 7 5 3 20 26 -6 24

4 Guaya Unit­ed 14 6 5 3 24 21 3 21

5 Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed 13 6 5 2 24 17 7 20

6 PVDM Utd 16 4 7 5 26 27 -1 17

7 San F’do Gi­ants 14 3 4 7 18 25 -7 16

8 Club San­do 15 3 8 4 19 26 -7 13

9 AIA Ea­gles FC 15 2 8 5 12 38 -26 11

10 Evo­lu­tion FC 14 3 10 1 12 33 -21 10

Up­com­ing match­es

Group Two

Sat­ur­day’s match­es

Club San­do FC II vs Cen­tral Soc­cer World, Bal­main Rec. Grd, Cou­va, 4 pm

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants vs Ea­gles FC, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Train­ing Field, Mara­bel­la, 4 pm

Union Hall Utd vs Guaya Unit­ed, Sub­naik Park, San­ta Flo­ra, 6 pm

Sun­day’s match­es

Group One

Misc. Laven­tille Utd vs QPCC FC, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, 4 pm

RSSR vs Po­lice FC II, Ken Cooke Grd, St James Po­lice Bar­racks, 6 pm

Group Two

Evo­lu­tion FC II vs MIC Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed, Ed­ing­burg 500 Rec. Grd, Ch­agua­nas, 5 pm