Carder Park, Portland — St George’s defeated Eagle Strikers 2-0 in the Flow Champions Cup knockout football competition in the Portland derby, as both teams ended with 10 players at Carder Park on Thursday.

Dwayne Holmes (13th) and Horace James (50th) minutes were on target for the victors.

In a dull encounter St George’s took the lead from the penalty spot when Eagle Strikers’ defender Tyrone Austin handled the ball in the penalty area.

Holmes calmly lodged the ball to the right of goalkeeper Owen Steele.

Eagle Strikers tried to get back in the game through Jason Miller, Kamar Campbell, Fitzroy Smith and Fitzroy Lindsay, but found Craig White and Bobby-Joe Huie hard to handle.

St George’s made the game safe five minutes after the interval when James capitalised on a goal mouth melee.

Shortly after the left upright denied substitute Ushane Dobson from sending St George’s further ahead.

Steele and Damion Harwood, who appeared to have carried on with an earlier squabble were promptly ejected by referee Gawayne Scott after a brawl nearing the end of the match.

Winning coach Geoffrey Maxwell was not pleased with his team’s performance. “We took the position too lightly, we played them and beat them 8-0 in the knockout final and played lackadaisical and slacked up at times in defence. The incident is unfortunate and I think the Portland FA should deal with it.”

Dean Weston blamed the referee for his team’s loss. “The problem is that we were not pleased in the way the referee handled the game as the players were intimidated whenever there is an incident.”