ALPHA United FC of Guyana shocked Defence Force of Trinidad and Tobago 2-0 in their opening game in the regional Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championship at the Harbour View mini-stadium on Friday.

Andrew Murray got the Guyanese team off the mark in the 20th minute, and Kithson Bain made the result safe three minutes after the half-time break for what was considered the surprising victory by the semi-professional team against the professional Defence Force team.

Alpha started confidently and within minutes of the kick-off, nimble-footed vice-captain Gregory Richardson exposed a leaky Defence Force backline with some darting right-sided runs that left the Trini professionals in a real spot of bother.

Their industrious forays paid off as Defence Force failed to close out their left side terror in Murray and left goalkeeper Kevin Graham at his mercy.

Going to the break a goal down, Defence Force were expected to return with great purpose and thrust and they did. But before they could settle, Alpha struck early in the half with their second goal through Bain to help to stifle any ambitious notion Defence Force might have harboured in staging a successful second-half reprisal.

Successful coach Wayne Dover said that the victory was not entirely unexpected. “It was a team effort that was due to team organisation defensively. We always knew that once we can maintain the level of discipline defensively, on the counter attack or in the offence we could always make a lot of deceptive moves because we have players who are capable of creating space and scoring goals.”

He added: “Well, we know Defence Force to be a good team; they play in a professional league (while) we have an amateur situation in Guyana, but we acquired a number of good players in the country and made this team the way it is. So we knew coming into this game it would not have been easy, but we have beaten this team before when we finished third in the CFU Cup. So we knew we had one up against them and could always take it

to two.”

The confident coach added that the aim is to win all their games, and therefore he is expecting another disciplined performance against Harbour View today.

Dover’s Trinidad and Tobago counterpart Ross Russell expressed great disappointment with his team’s shoddy display. “The guys did not step up today. They were a little behind Alpha. I thought Alpha were quicker to the ball and for that you have to give them credit. They played a good game and fought for every ball.”

Meanwhile, Harbour View will bow into action today at 7:30 pm against Alpha United after their fixture against Club SV Notch on Friday was not called off following the withdrawal of the Surinamese club from the competition due to

internal issues.

Club SV Notch was thus fined US$51,269.44 in keeping with Article IV (2) and Article IV B (5).

The top three teams in the tournament qualify for the 2014-15 CONCACAF Champions League.