After a disappointing SKNFA Super Six playoff performances, St. Peters FC and Hobson Enterprises Garden Hotspurs ended their 2021 Premier League season on high notes in their last matches of the season. In both games, both teams came from behind to defeat their opponents—St. Peters coming from 2 nil down in the first half to snatch a 3-2 victory of Flow 4G Cayon Rockets. That win moved St. Peters from the bottom of the table to finish the playoffs in 5th position sending Cayon down to 6th place.
Scoring for Cayon
Carlos Bertie 24th min
Raheem Davis 26th min
Scoring for St. Peters
Kareem Simmonds 63rd min
Salas Cannonier 72nd min
Deshawn Collins 82nd min
Coach Anthony “Nets” Isaac said at halftime, the players were motivated not to end the playoffs in last position and came out much better in the second half. “The guys motivated themselves in saying we have to go out there and score four goals because we are not coming last in this tournament,” Isaac said. He said the club will have to discuss plans for next season.
One of Cayon’s Assistant Coach Valentine Anthony said he believes the players lacked concentration in the second half, which led to the defeat. “Players feel like this is the last game of the season and we were going out there to have fun but we have to regroup for next season hopefully things work out for us,” Anthony said.
Meanwhile, in the night’s other match, the Spurs comeback was a bit more eventful. They took the lead in the 5th minute from a Dahjal Kelly strike only for St. Paul’s to equalize two minutes later, through a thunderous Mahlik Clarke strike. A goalkeeping error led to Clarke scoring a second goal to give St. Paul’s the lead, but Spurs were determined not to lose this match and were able to equalize in the 31st minute again through Kelly. It then took a late strike from Shervin Allen in the 86th minute to give Spurs the victory. Coach Austin Huggins, in commenting on the match, said they really wanted to get the three points to get the third spot and give the fans something to cheer about. “Even though we might not be able to carry home the big prize, we had to come out and play for the fans still and with some pride and also sportsmanship to finish the tournament and get ourselves together for the next tournament,” Huggins said. He said, looking to next season, the club will have to be rebuilt with younger players to make Spurs competitive. “We have a lot of senior players who might not be able to carry on for a very long time so we should be thinking to rebuilding the club so that we can compete in the future,” Huggins said.
For St. Paul’s, this match was a consolation, after already booking their spot in the finals. “It’s disappointing. You always want to come out of every game with a win…you saw the type of team we fielded tonight knowing that we had already secured our position in the finals on Saturday,” St. Paul’s manager Derionne Edmeade said. “But still we were really hoping that we would win the game tonight. It was a late last-minute goal. You really have to give Spurs credit because they really had a lot to play for tonight,” Edemade said.
With those results, SOL IAS Conaree FC (10 points) and St. Paul’s United (9 points) are in the Super Six Finals entering first and second respectively. Garden Hotspurs finished in third place (8 points), Village Superstars, fourth place (5 points), St. Peters FC in 5th place with five points, but a lower goal difference than Village and Cayon Rockets FC in 6th place with three points.
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