WINSTON SILL, Freelance Photographer -
The Gleaner's Fitzroy Pickett (centre), under pressure from a National Water Commission defender, prepares to pass the ball to teammate Fabian Nethersole (left) during their KSAFA Business House Football Association semi-final at the men's hockey field at Mona on Wednesday. Pickett scored twice and Nethersole once in The Gleaner's win.
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Cement Company and The Gleaner both scored emphatic wins to qualify for the final of the Kingston and St. Andrew Business House Football Association Division One championship.
Two players scored twice in the semi-final clashes, Fitzroy Pickett in The Gleaner's comprehensive 5-1 drubbing of last season's finalists National Water Commission (NWC) at their own place what used to be the men's hockey field at Mona.
The other man who hit a double was Sean Freckleton whose team, Cement Company, also registered an easy win, 4-1 over National Commercial Bank (NCB) in their clash at Great House Boulevard.
With either team yet to settle at the hockey field, Pickett's strike partner, Fabian Nethersole, got the ball rolling when he beat a defender inside the penalty box and rifled a powerful shot past the goalkeeper to hand The Gleaner a third-minute lead.
The homesters responded well with good possessional play but found it difficult to penetrate the Michael 'Jah Mikes' Williams-coached Gleaner team's defense.
A TORRID TIME
On the other hand, The Gleanercontinued to hit on the counter and increased the lead near the half-hour mark when speedy and attacking fullback Andrew Gill, who gave the flank defenders on the opposing team a torrid time, worked his way into the penalty box and cut back a pass to the team's former
captain, Clint Reid, who controlled before calmly scoring a side-footer into the unprotected far side of the goal.
The score remained that way into the interval but less that five minutes after the resumption, Rollin Francis split The Gleaner's defence and found captain Fitzroy Anglin, who cut by a defender before powering a shot past impressive Constant Spring National Premier League custodian Andrew Sewell from the top of the six-yard box to make the score 2-1.
Any thoughts the 'Watermen' had of equalising quickly evaporated with the advent of the 'Pickett Show', and a well-deserved goal by Ricardo Burke, who scored his team's fourth with a grass-cutter from the top of the penalty box.
Pickett had earlier finished off a cross from Nethersole to restore the two-goal advantage at 3-1 and returned to score the fifth goal to complete a rousing win for the team which won the Division Two championship last season.
GOOD POSITION
The last time The Gleaner achieved that feat, they went on to claim the Division One crown the following season.
Standing in the way of that extraordinary repeat are the reigning champions Cement Company, who made the bankmen pay a heavy debt for early defensive mistakes by going ahead 2-0 inside the first 20 minutes. Orlando Lowe (14th) and Dwayne Morgan (19th) were responsible for those goals, the only conversions of the first half.
Lowe, the brother of national striker Onandi, was red carded in the second half but that did not hinder his team, which powered on with Freckleton's goals at the 57th and 86th minutes for a huge win.
Anthony Leslie (74th) scored NCB's consolation goal.
