Stern John double dumps Mexico

In front of one of the largest crowd ever at the Hasely Crawford Stadium at Mucurapo, numbering close to 25,000, the Warriors earned a scintillating come from behind 2-1 win over Mexico, ranked sixth in the world.

Trinidad and Tobago, coached by Dutchman Leo Beenhakker now come up against Asian qualifiers Bahrain in a home and away tie next month for a spot in the World Cup draw.

Trinidad and Tobago needed to win last night and the triumph was just reward for an allround team effort in which the outstanding players were goalscorer John, midfield general Russell Latapy, striker Dwight Yorke, Aurtis Whitley and Carlos Edwards.

The first salvo was fired by Whitley in the 43rd minute when he sped past Mexican defender Francisco Rodriguez. After drilling his right-footer against the post, an unbalanced but unmarked John tapped his left-footer past a stranded goalkeeper Jose Corona.

In the 61st minute Whitley again received a pass from Latapy and after the Mexicans won it back, a mistake by defender Joel Huiqui resulted in a loose ball to John, who from outside the penalty box blasted his right-footer home.

TT held the upper-hand for the majority of the first half with John heading a Carlos Edwards right-side cross overbar in the opening minutes of play.

Fifteen minutes later a one-two featuring captain Yorke and Latapy saw the former Manchester United star powering a right-footer overbar while in the 19th, John met an Avery John deep left-side centre but headed wide.

In the 31st however the hosts were awarded a penalty when, from a Latapy corner and a mis-kick by Yorke, Stern John was brought down in the penalty box by Huiqui.

Refereee Jose Pineda of Honduras pointed to the spot but Stern John’s effort was held on the second attempt by Corona.

That moment spurred the Mexicans to life as midfielder Jaime Lozano collected a through-ball from striker Guillermo Franco in the 34th minute to force a blind side save from Warriors goalkeeper Kelvin Jack.

The Mexican pressure paid off in the 39th when after a midfield build-up, Luis Gomez found Lozano on the left who intelligently chipped his left-footer over the reach of TT custodian Jack. He subsequently needed medical attention for cramps after that play and was replaced by Shaka Hislop at the half-time interval.

Another Mexican attack two minutes later saw Lozano chipping another left-footer to Argentine born forward forward Francisco Fonseca who in turn headed wide.

After Stern John’s equaliser national defender Marvin "Dog"Andrews dispossessed Fonseca, ran through the heart of the Mexican defence but he drilled his 25-metre shot high.

Hislop was called into action in the 47th, when he was forced low down to hold a Franco header.

After John’s go-ahead goal in the 61st, the Derby County striker mised two chances to register his hat-trick.

In the 65th he got a ball from 40 metres out but his attempted lob was tipped overbar by a backtracking Corona.

Six minutes from time Densil Theobald, who replaced Whitley in the 80th found Andrews in the back and after surging through the middle tried a weak right-footed drive which found Stern John but his back heeled shot was cleared off the line by Rodriguez.