|
|
|
 My Site News: St George's stave off marauding Bulls |
|
|
| Bull Bay's Demtrio Billet (right) goes by St George's' Marvin Fagan
|
 |
Thursday, March 3
St George's stave off marauding Bulls
St George's of Portland advanced to the next stage of the Red Stripe Champions Cup by eliminating Bull Bay of St Andrew, 2-1, on aggregate, after playing to a 1-1 draw at Bull Pen yesterday.
The winners came into yesterday's match with a 1-0 lead from the first leg of the two-way tie last Wednesday through Garfield Reid's 89th-minute goal.
Yesterday, St George's took the lead in the 65th minute through Damion Harwood as the Portland side made the best of their numerical advantage after the Bulls went down to 10 men when defender Kendrick Bailey was ejected for dissent and foul and abusive language.
Bull Bay, though a man short for 62 minutes, made a late rally and were rewarded when Kemar Cockburne netted in the 90th minute. But it was a case of too little too late for the former National Premier League campaigners.
St George's manager Barrington Hill said his team played to the game plan as they went on the attack from early, forcing Bull Bay to defend.
"Our plan was not to come here and defend the 1-0; the plan was to attack and after a hard day's work we're victorious," he beamed.
Meanwhile, Bull Bay's player/coach Barrington Gaynor said going down to 10 men disrupted his efforts to stage a proper fight-back.
"We thought we could have gotten the job done at home, but that didn't work as we got a red card early in the game and that put a lot of pressure on us," said Gaynor.
St George's took the lead when Marvin Fagan made a piercing run down the right-side, and with the Bull Bay defence back-pedalling, scooped for an unmarked Harwood at the far post to head into the empty net.
Bull Bay, with the introduction of Jermaine Gardner, Jermaine Edwards and Oneil Gayle as second-half subs, came to life as they went on a desperate mission to rescue the tie.
And it was Gardner's industry down the right-side that paid off when he crossed to an onrushing Cockburne, who slammed past goalkeeper Randal Huie.
But although Bull Bay will not get anywhere near the $500,000 championship prize money, they - like all teams eliminated in the first phase of the islandwide knockout tournament - will get $50,000.
 | | Bull Bay's player/coach Barrington 'Cobra' Gaynor, a former national full back. |
|
|
