By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Wolues cation from a previous game with Panthers
Defending BVI Football Association league champs Wolues, handed hosts VG United their first loss of the season after four victories and a tie-on Sunday, with a thrilling 1-0 victory at the Valley Recreation Grounds.
Both teams played to 0-0 at the half, before Hugo Lizário scored his seventh goal of the season in the 73rd minute, for the 1-0 victory.
“We went into the game knowing it was going to be close—ii always is against VG United—and we wanted to keep the game as tight as possible and see what we could do going forward,” Wolues Captain Phil Nelson told Island Sun Sports. “We came under a lot of pressure at the beginning of the game, and they had a couple of hard chances. They were a little frantic and put on the pressure which we expected them to do, especially being at home and we withstood the pressure. But the game really could have gone either way. There were a couple hard chances for both teams, but in the end, we had a little bit of quality in Hugo, who made a nice finish about 20 minutes before the end of the game, and we hung on from there.”
VG United Manager Jermaine Abrams said Wolues are defending champs for a reason, they’re very structured, organized and well coached.
“We outshot them at the goal but there weren’t a lot (of them) on target, but the key one, I guess they caught us on a one on one and counter and they capitalized—that’s what we expect from Wolues,” Abrams said. “All round, it was a good game, very enjoyable game, but it’s the champions we were playing, so expect them to be really gunning for you. At the end, we just came up short, but I wouldn’t trade our performance. They didn’t totally dominate us in the game. It was a very competitive game.”
Antonio Rodney had a hat trick to extend his league leading goals to 11, as Islanders blanked Old Madrid, 6-0, with goals in the 29th, 45+2 and 46th. O’vain Biggerstaff opened the scoring in the 37th while Troy Caesar scored off a penalty in the 66th and added another in the 87th.
Nigel Sanderson had a brace in the 5th and 39th minutes to keep pace with Rodney on nine goals, in the Panthers’ 5-0 victory over Sugar Boys. Other goals came from Enrico Bowen (15), Rickson Augustin (28) and Antonio Sutherland, (52).
Jhon Samuel completed a first half hat trick in the 24th minute during One Love’s 9-2 win over newcomers Avengers. Other goals, Shane Prince (3); Alice Savery, (32); Derval Stephenson, (55); Romaine Dennis, (84); Zeron Samuel (90+2) and Kenroy Palmer, (90+4).
Rebels had goals from: Coann Lockhart, Sheldon Toney, Curtly Peters, Lashawn Gibbs and Roshad Boyce in a 5-0 win over Positive.
