Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER - Reno's Omar Dallas (left) being challenged by Gaymeon Watkins of Constant Spring during their first leg Red Stripe Champions Cup Knockout game yesterday. Reno won 1-0.
THERE WERE a lot of Red Stripe beers, Red Stripe banners, and Red Stripe girls but it took the referee 80 minutes to show a red card in yesterday's bruising Red Stripe Champions Cup Knockout contest in which Reno clipped home team Constant Spring 1-0.
After two crunching tackles in which the Constant Spring players used their hands to strike their opponents, and much to the amazement of the Reno contingent, referee Courtney Campbell showed only the yellow card on both occasions because he apparently didn't have a red one.
But with about ten minutes remaining in normal time, fourth official Winston De La Haye, quietly handed Campbell a red card, much to the amusement of the Reno contingent.
Campbell could be seen showing his colleague after the game how he was frantically searching his pockets for a red card but found none.
There was also no medical team in place as Reno's Omar Johnson sustained a head injury and needed stitches but had to sit in the team bus for the remainder of the game complaining of headache, much to the annoyance of the Reno bench.
In a tight and combative encounter between two Premier League teams, Reno took a first leg advantage into the return leg on March 2, knowing very well that a 0-0 draw will see them through to the next round of the new-look all-island knockout championship.
Reno's Kevin Grant scrambled the ball into the back of the net in the 39th minute against the run of play.
For the umpteenth time this season, captain marvel, Aaron Lawrence, pulled off some brilliant saves to keep his team in the game.
Winning coach Carl Palmer of Reno credited his team's victory to the players following instructions as to how to nullify Constant Spring.
"The first 45 minutes of the game we stuck to the plan. Constant Spring utilise the flanks a lot so what we came out to do was to nullify that flow down the flanks. And we did that for the first 45 minutes," said Palmer.
"But in the last 45 we lose focus but the determination of the team carried us through to the end," he added.
Meanwhile, Danny Lyn, technical director of Constant Spring, once again bemoaned the poor finishing from his players as the reason for their demise.
"When you outplay a team without winning the football game it means you have to score goals," Lyn said.
"In the first 15 minutes we got four clear chances but we didn't put them away. In the second half we got chances and didn't put them away either.
We had total domination for the entire 90 minutes and we ended losing 1-0. Things have not been going right for us in the last couple of games," he said.
In other games, Lacers of Trelawny played to a 0-0 draw with Sandy Bay, Salt Spring and Newland finished 1-1, Portland's St Georges defeated Bull Bay 1-0 while Los Perfectos of Manchester got a bye following the disqualification of Clarendon's Sporting Central.
