Jabloteh regain first place

The Lucozade Big Six serves two purposes — determines the winner of the final Round (Round Four) of the Pro League, with the top six teams after Round Three Match Day Nine featuring; as well as decides the overall Pro League champs.

Jabloteh, who saw the consistent W Connection inch their way to the top spot on Thursday, reclaimed the lead a day later with an easy victory over Petrotrin in Round Four Match Day One, with items from former national players — striker Cornell Glen (61st minute) and midfielder Trent Noel (73rd minute penalty).

Those goals were the only ones registered on the day as the back-to-back matches at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Tunapuna between Joe Public and North East Stars, followed by the contest between W Connection and Caledonia AIA, ended in goal-less stalemates.

In the Joe Public-North East tussle, the closest either team came to securing three points came in the 56th minute as sustained pressure from North East saw midfielder Leslie “Tiger” Fitzpatrick hitting the post with a curling left-footed effort while Linsie Sherwood rifled the goal-bound rebound against the body of his captain Anthony Wolfe — whose back was turned to the play.

The Connection-Caledonia fixture was just as scrappy, as neither team seemed interested in dictating terms for any length of time.

On the stroke of half-time, Caledonia’s midfielder Stephan David picked out Kendall Velox with a diagonal ball but the veteran St Vincent striker could not find the mark with a left-footer after getting past defender Kareem Joseph.

Another evergreen player, Brazilian-born Jose Luiz Seabra, met a right-sided ball from Jonathan Frias but his right-footer was tipped against the crossbar by Caledonia’s Vincentian goalkeeper Dwaine Sandy after 57 minutes.

Sandy was called into action in the 86th, as he denied a point-blank header from Hughton Hector while, a minute afterwards, ex-national forward Conrad Smith was unable to drill home a low right-footer.

Jabloteh and Connection are the only teams with any realistic chance of copping the 2008 league crown.

In today’s Round Four Match Day Two action, Jabloteh will host Caledonia at Mucurapo, Connection will square off against North East at Tunapuna while the “Eastern Lions” will travel to the Palo Seco Recreation Ground to meet Petrotrin.

All three games will each kick off at four o’clock.

STANDINGS
Pl W D L F A Pts
San Juan Jabloteh 28 20 4 4 57 23 64
W Connection 28 19 5 4 53 18 62
Caledonia AIA 28 12 6 10 42 38 42
Joe Public 28 12 5 11 47 36 41
North East Stars 28 12 5 11 36 34 41
United Petrotrin 28 10 7 11 34 44 37
St Ann’s Rangers 27 9 7 11 50 52 34
Defence Force 27 8 6 13 41 47 30
Ma Pau SC 27 7 4 16 33 63 25
Tobago United 27 3 3 21 25 63 12

Big Six — Jabloteh 3; W Connection 1; Joe Public 1; Caledonia AIA 1; North East 1; Petrotrin 0.