Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
Gleaner captain Bernard Blackwood (left) receives the KSAFA Business House football knockout trophy from KSAFA Business House general secretary Brian Rose, while members of his team celebrate at the National Water Commission field on Saturday. The Gleaner won the competition after defeating division two team Petrojam 11-10 in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 regular time result. - Norman Grindley /Deputy Chief Photographer
The Gleaner finally claimed the elusive crown of knockout corporate football king pins when they outlasted division 2 semi-finalists Petrojam 11-10 on penalties, after a 1-1 regular time result, in a nail-biting KSAFA Business House football KO final at the National Water Commission football field on Saturday.
"It's a wonderful feeling, this particular cup has eluded us for about five years, so it is quite an achievement to finally lift it." said Michael Williams coach of the winning Gleaner team.
"We would have preferred to have it wrapped up in regular time because we have more football to play for the season, but I suppose the fact that the game was so long and stressful made the victory even sweeter." Williams added.
However, the battle to do so had proved to be a fierce one and if knockout final debutantes Petrojam had things their way, the wait would have been an even longer one.
"We are not afraid of any team, we played several division one sides in the pre-season and beat quite a few of them, so we were not intimidated coming in." explained Petrojam coach Raymond Quallo.
Good effort
"The overall effort wasn't all that bad, we made a lot of blunders, the middle was too open and we had a couple of defensive lapses, but we haven't been training and we have a lot of young players." he added.
Finding themselves a goal behind, the petroleum company not only managed to pull themselves level at 1-1 by the end of regular time, but tenaciously fought out a 0-0 extra time result before wresting away the early advantage from The Gleaner in an edgy penalty shoot-out, which saw an astounding 26 penalties taken and 21 scored.
The dependable Fabian Nethersole with his 5th goal in three games had put the 2004 league champions ahead in the 33rd minute. Petrojam captain Aphas Burnard would, however, wrong foot Gleaner custodian Andrew Sewell from the spot to bring his team level in the 68th minute.
With the result staying that way until full-time and then another 30 minutes of scoreless extra time it was left to survival of the calmest as the already tense game headed into the shoot-out. With the scores tied at 9-9 Sewell came up with a big shut-out in sudden death to keep Gleaner's hopes alive, sending the game into another round of kicks. With the game on the line for Petrojam Sewell stole the show, when he dove sharply to his left to stuff a third penalty from Burnard, who had beaten him on two previous occasions.
Jason Brown, Bernard Blackwood, Lamar Morgan, Kenrick Picknight, Sean Fraser, Oneil Morrison, Rudolf Speid, Nethersole, Pickett and Sewell all netted for the Gleaner. While Enos Henry, Wayne James, Burnard, Arcott Lindo, Dajan Beckford, Warren Anderson, Dwight Morgan, Michael Taylor scored penalties for Petrojam.
