Sandals South Coast look to consolidate 4th place in Western Confed Super League
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Former champions Sandals South Coast could take a firm grip on fourth place in the Jamaica Football Federation Western Confederation Charley’s JB Rum Super League today with a win over relegation threatened Reggae Youths in their third-round game at the UDC Field at 3:00 pm.
Sandals South Coast, winners two years ago when they qualified for the Red Stripe Premier League, are in fourth place in the points table on 20 points, three behind Falmouth United and a win today would open up a three-point gap on Harmony FC and a four-point gap on Hopewell United, the latter having a game in hand.
With four games to go before the end of the regular season, the race for places in the semi-finals is heating up.
Faulkland FC, who lost back to back finals to Wadadah FC — last season’s final and the recent mid-season play-off — are the leaders on 30 points after beating Wadadah FC 3-1 on Saturday, three points ahead of the defending champions.
Faulkland FC took over sole leadership of the points table on Saturday with only their second victory over Wadadah FC in their top of the table clash at the UDC Field, thus avenging their loss in the mid-season final three weeks earlier.
An own goal gave Faulkland FC the lead at half-time and despite Wadadah FC levelling the scores early in the second half, Faulkland FC roared back with two goals to beat their parish rivals for only the second time in the Super League.
It was Wadadah FC’s first loss in nine games since they were edged 1-0 by Hopewell United in the first round on January 6.
Wadadah FC went behind on the stroke of half-time after a mix-up between goalkeeper Tristan Bernard and Tremaine Robinson allowed the ball to roll into the goal.
Oshane Hunter then scored his second goal in back to back games when he headed Wadadah FC level in the 54th minute.
Radcliff Dawkins scored his first goal of the season in the 60th minute after a cross from the right wing, beat the Wadadah FC defence and tapped in from close range.
Peter Campbell, who was a late substitution, put the game further out of reach of Wadadah FC when he beat Bernard in the 90th minute, leaving the goalkeeper in a pile before scoring into an unprotected goal.
Falmouth United took over third place with an easy 3-0 win over Somerton FC at Elleston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth and Granville United’s first win in eight games resulted in Somerton FC being the first club that will be relegated at the end of the season.
Aiden Jokomba scored his first goal for Falmouth United when he gave them to lead in the 12th minute before Allan Ottey made it 2-0 in the 42nd minute with his sixth goal since joining the team in January.
Ricardo James added a third goal in the 55th minute to take the game out of the reach of Somerton FC.
Former champions Granville United created some breathing room from the bottom four teams that will be automatically relegated with a 4-2 win over Delveland PYC in Westmoreland.
Gregory Gordon scored a first-half brace and Romaine Reid scored a second-half double to lead Granville United to only their fourth win of the campaign as they improved to 16 points.
Gordon scored in the 25th and 33rd minutes for Granville United before Odwayne McNaughton scored for Delveland PYC in time added at the end of the first half.
Reid then scored his double in the 55th and 63rd minutes before the home team got another goal from Fabian Thelwell in the 84th minute.
Hopewell United lost some ground in the race for the semi-finals when they were held goalless at home by Harmony FC, the same scoreline between Lucea FC and Grand Palladium in their Hanover derby at Watson Taylor Park on Saturday, a score that did little for either team in the lower half of the table.