Sub­sti­tute Shaquille Dublin got a dou­ble in the sec­ond half to guide Point Fortin Civic to a 2-0 vic­to­ry over Prison Ser­vices FC on Sat­ur­day in the first match of a dou­ble­head­er at the Ari­ma Velo­drome, as round two of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League con­tin­ued.

The men from Point had a come-from-be­hind 1-1 tie with Club San­do in their open­ing match last week, but on Sat­ur­day they were more than two goals bet­ter than their op­po­nents.

Coach Dex­ter Cyrus said he could not be­lieve his team did not score in the first half, amidst the dom­i­nance they en­joyed.

In spite of their dom­i­nance, how­ev­er, it was Pris­ons who had the most bla­tant of chances to score, when de­fend­er Lyshaun Mor­ris at­tempt­ed to head a ball back to his goal­keep­er Ter­rence Lewis while un­der pres­sure from strik­er An­to­nio Au­guste in the 44th minute. But it fell ag­o­nis­ing­ly short of the on­rush­ing cus­to­di­an and al­lowed Au­guste in with a one-on-one with Lewis.

How­ev­er, Au­guste pro­cras­ti­nat­ed and al­lowed Mor­ris to rush back and toe-poke the ball be­yond the goalline be­fore the strik­er could of­fer a shot.

The teams went to the halfway break with the scores lev­elled at ze­ro, but soon af­ter they re­turned to the field, Dublin got the open­ing goal.

Shack­iel Hen­ry found him­self at the end of a left-side cross by Luke Phillips for Point Fortin be­fore he quick­ly re­leased to the on­com­ing Dublin to hit hard and low past goal­keep­er Jevon Bourne in the 55th minute for a 1-0 lead.

Ten min­utes lat­er, Dublin sealed the win. This time from a throw-in from the left side, which Pris­ons’ de­fend­er and cap­tain An­tho­ny Par­ris mist­imed, and it fell nice­ly for Dublin to hit past the goalie for a 2-0 ad­van­tage.

Pris­ons, the new team in T&T’s top-flight foot­ball, should have pulled a goal back in the 74th minute, how­ev­er. Sub­sti­tute Car­lon Wight was al­lowed a clear path to the Point Fortin goal de­spite a bla­tant dan­ger­ous tack­le on a Point de­fend­er ear­li­er, and with on­ly Lewis in front of him, Wight hit straight to him.

The at­tempt summed up the Pris­ons’ day as they had to set­tle for the 2-0 de­feat.

Cunu­pia blanks Jabloteh for first win

Jaimol Layne and cap­tain Rhon­del Gib­son net­ted a goal each as Cunu­pia FC blanked San Juan Jabloteh for their first win in two match­es in the 2023 T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League when sec­ond round match­es kicked off with a dou­ble­head­er at the St James Po­lice Bar­racks, Train­ing Ground, Long Cir­cu­lar on Fri­day night.

Layne fired in the open­er a minute in­to time added-on at the end of the first half when he beat Jabloteh goal­keep­er and cap­tain Jesse Pe­ters with a long-range right-foot­ed blast that nes­tled in­to the top right-hand cor­ner of the goal, and in the 71st minute, Gib­son re­act­ed quick­ly to a loss ball in the 18-yard box af­ter Pe­ters failed to clear a right-sided cor­ner.

The win se­cured the first points for the Michael De Four-coached Cunu­pia FC who en­tered the match on the back of a 2-0 loss to Cale­do­nia AIA at the Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um, on Sun­day last while the Mar­vin Gor­don-coached San Juan Jabloteh drew goal­less against T&T Pris­ons al­so at Ari­ma on Sun­day in their open­er.

In the night’s sec­ond match, T&T Po­lice, who en­joyed a good show­ing in the last edi­tion of the As­cen­sion Foot­ball Tour­na­ment, bat­tled for­mer pow­er­house W Con­nec­tion, who en­ter the match on the heels of a 2-0 loss to Cen­tral FC in their open­er.

The ‘Law­men’ who were in-ac­tive in the open­ing round af­ter their match against Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers was re-sched­uled will be buoyed by the re­turn from na­tion­al team du­ties of goal­keep­er Adri­an Fon­cette, while the for­mer peren­ni­al kings of lo­cal foot­ball, W Con­nec­tion will al­so see the re­turn of na­tion­al team duo, strik­er Nathaniel James, and goal­keep­er Den­zil Smith, all of whom were part of the T&T team that re­turned from their two-match in­ter­na­tion­al friend­lies with the Ja­maica ‘Reg­gae Boyz’, with T&T win­ning the first en­counter 1-0, and earn­ing a 0-0 draw in the oth­er.

On Sat­ur­day, March 18, a dou­ble-head­er is al­so on the sched­ule for Ari­ma from 5 pm with T&T Pris­ons en­ter­tain­ing Point Fortin Civic, fol­lowed by Cen­tral FC who may in­clude T&T in­ter­na­tion­al Kadeem Corbin on his re­turn from Ja­maica, against Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA from 7.30 pm.

The sec­ond round will con­clude on Sun­day, March 19, when Club San­do which should fea­ture na­tion­al play­ers Josi­ah Trim­ming­ham, Ka­reem Bai­ley, hosts AC Port of Spain, and fel­low T&T in­ter­na­tion­als, goal­keep­er Mar­vin Phillip, Jameel Nep­tune, Matthew Woo Ling, Michael Poon Angeron, Jo­moul Fran­cois and John-Paul Rochford, at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, from 4 pm.

Sun­day’s match

Club San­do vs AC Port of Spain, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, 4 pm.