By Daraine Luton, Freelance WriterNATIONAL DEFENDER Ian 'Pepe' Goodison returned to competitive football yesterday.
However, his presence could not prevent his team, Tivoli Gardens, from sharing points at home with Rivoli at Railway Oval.
Both teams battled to a goalless draw in Wray & Nephew National Premier League action while Goodison successfully challenged the knee injury that prevented him from gracing the football field for almost a year, by playing the entire game.
Goodison, who was playing in his first Premier League game, looked a bit match rusty and seemed to be favouring his right leg but Tivoli's coach, Glendon "Admiral" Bailey, felt the player looked out of shape because he was not pressed by his opponents.
Bailey's assessment seems credible as the Rivoli team was unable to take apart Tivoli's back-line.
The Spanish Town-based team though, might feel that their inability to find the back of the net was particularly due to the absence of joint leading scorer Patrick Beech (11 goals), who missed the game due to an ankle injury.
In yesterday's face off, both teams got opportunities to score at least a goal with the homesters getting the prettier 'Christmas gifts' that they failed to unwrap.
ROLAND DEAN'S EFFORT
Roland Dean, in particular, was guilty, taking shots on the Rivoli goal that looked more like back passes. His best effort came in the 32nd minute. Then, he collected a pass from Marvin Morgan and with the advancing goalie narrowing the angle, he shot just wide.
It was his teammate, Christopher Nicholas, who got the first real chance of the game. With 13 minutes gone, he stole in behind the Rivoli's defence then headed a Fabian Davis free kick straight into the lap of Dennis Clayton in Rivoli's goal.
Five minutes later, Rivoli's Jevon Hodges dismissed Denroy Gordon at the by-line and crossed into Tivoli's penalty area. However, his effort was in vain as the ball was missed by the Tivoli's defence and the on-rushing attacker Errol Wilkie. Hodges also had a 52nd minute strike saved by Philmore Cumbrie. The former found himself with the 'keeper to beat and instead of advancing closer to goal, tried to beat the goalie from 16 yards and was denied.
Although both teams ended the half with Rivoli getting the nod as the better team because of the dominance they showed in midfield, Tivoli returned to the pitch and dominated the second half, forcing the visitors to defend for almost the entire period.
Morgan was awesome in the way he attacked his opponent's goal. During this second 45 minutes Tivoli also rained several shots at Rivoli but they were unable to net and drew a point and a blank scorecard.
Bailey, though happy with the point, felt his team did not do enough to win.
"Goals win matches. If we don't score then we can't win," he said.
Meanwhile, Bradley Stewart saw the result as a fair one considering that his team was playing away from home.
"Any points gained away from home have to be seen as valuable points," said Stewart after accessing his team's performance as "fairly well".
Reno stage classic comeback
WESTERN BUREAU:
FORMER CHAMPIONS Reno FC staged a classic comeback yesterday to beat promoted Star Cosmos 3-2 in their second round Wray and Nephew National Premier League (NPL) game at Frome Sports Complex.
The Westmoreland team scored three times in a 23-minute span late in the second half after trailing 2-0 after 50 minutes, to win their second game this round and improved one place in the overall standings to eighth.
Martin Williams scored in the 65th minute, veteran former national midfielder Donald Hewitt in the 80th and Omar Dallas in the 88th, after Andre Lawson in the 23rd and Mark Carey in the 50th had given the St Mary club a lead.
The loss also snapped Star Cosmos' two-game win streak and kept them at the bottom of the points standings with 12 points.
Boysie Nicholson, who guided Frome Technical to the ISSA Pepsi/Sports Plus daCosta Cup and a share of the Olivier Shield titles earlier this season, and who substituted for Wendell Downswell as coach, told The Gleaner.
"This win was a big morale boost to the team based on the fact that we have not been training all that well and a number of top players have not been turning out as we had some financial problems."
He said, however, that they hoped to "use this as a turn-around as we have a good bunch of players and the team showed a lot of character to come from two goals down."
Nicholson said he tried a few things different from the norm and tried to get the team to play more offensively.
Star Cosmos' coach, Lewin Purser, blamed the loss on his players departing from the formula that had worked for them through the last two games and for all but 10 minutes of yesterday's game.
"It is a hard loss and I think what let us down is failure to continue doing the things that got us the lead," he said. "We pressured the Reno team in the first half and early in the second half but after going up two we stopped doing these things. We sat back and started giving up the ball, not really defending the lead but started giving away possession." He added: The players got carried away, probably started celebrating too early and lost concentration."
Invaders dominate Trelawny stalemate
Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer
THE Trelawny derby between Village United and Invaders Football Club did not fail to provide excitement at the Elliston Wakeland Sports Complex yesterday.
The game, which ended 1-1, saw countless chances created and missed by both teams, one controversial penalty awarded and one denied, four cautions and two ejections one of whom was a coach.
Defender Garfield Jackson opened the scoring for Invaders in the 44th minute with a thunderous strike, while substitute Henrique Green equalized for Village in the 82nd minute.
Though Village United have been in the National Premier League longer, they played as if they were the newcomers in the first half.
Invaders settled more quickly and looked the more accomplished of the two teams. That more constructive play did not transform itself into the clearer chances being created.
Village it were, who had the better chances then. In the 24th minute Village midfielder Ian McAnuff received a cross at about chest height and instead of chesting the ball down and shooting, he went for the spectacular with a scissors kick which failed to come off.
Mark Williams followed it up with a blast, which was blocked by a defender.
Just seconds later the activity swung to the other area with the speedy Thomas Grant squandering an excellent opportunity. With an empty goal staring at him, Grant blasted high from about eight yards.
If the misses of McAnuff and Grant were bad then that of Fabian Dawkins was worse. Dawkins, who was seen to speak sternly to McAnuff after his miss, was alone at the back post inside on or about the six-yard box but skied his shot in the 27th minute.
Six minutes later McAnuff was again to miss another simple chance when he misfired on a low cross from Dawkins.
BREAKTHROUGH
The breakthrough was to come in the 44th minute but after Elvis Hart had pulled off a fine save from Nigel Ellis' penalty.
Invaders earned the penalty after Livingston Williams worked his way around central defender Preston Bernard. He then crossed the ball which struck the hand of the covering Kirk Hendricks. Referee Orville Sandcroft pointed to the spot immediately.
Hart went down well to save the ball as his team celebrated. The ball went for a corner and Village appeared to be still celebrating when it was taken. The ball was partially cleared to Jackson who was about 25-yards from the goal. His powerhouse gave no one a chance.
The second half was almost all Invaders as Village remained on the backfoot.
The introduction of forward Marlon Fletcher for the ineffective Teofore Bennett failed to lift them to the desired degree.
Village's cause was not helped with the ejection of Bernard for a second bookable offence in the 66th minute.
Invaders pinned Village on the ropes but would not provide the knockout blow as Williams, Ricardo Geddess, substitute Sheldon Bryan and others missed chances.
By this time the mood of the Village supporters was not improving as Daniel Ricketts played a ball onto the hand of a defender in a similar fashion to the one which was ruled a penalty for Invaders but Sandcroft was not consistent.
It took the introduction of the wiry youngster, Green, to rescue Village as he fired home a pass from Ricketts.
In celebrating the goal a Village supporter ran by the touchline and verbally abused Sandcroft, who ejected coach Lloyd Williams for the offence.
Despite being told by the match commissary and others that Williams was not the guilty person, Sandcroft stuck to his guns.
At the end of the game numerous fans made their way to the infield and gave Sandcroft more than an earful for abuse for what they termed his inconsistencies.
