WESTERN BUREAU

Expect a super knockout when Russia invade Petersfield for their return-leg clash against Uprising in the Westmoreland Football Asso-ciation Paul Buchanan KO competition.

The coaches of Russia and Uprising were in an upbeat mood following their 1-1 quarter-final draw at the Llandilo playfield in Savanna-la-Mar on Thursday evening, owing to the periodic advantages their charges grabbed in the first leg.

In two other games played the same evening, champions Negril made a winning start, blanking Three Miles River 2-0 in Negril, while Geneva and Robins River played to a 1-1 tie.

Missed chances

Visitors Uprising from division one were marginally better and missed two wide-open chances in the first half. Russia, a Super League team, improved offensively and got even more clear-cut opportunities in the second half of a highly-competitive match that was loaded with some very enthusiastic tackles as none of the teams gave any quarter.

Timar Vassell gave Uprising a deserving lead at the 24th but 10 minutes later, Rohan Wilson restored parity with a perfectly-timed header.

Russia appeared to have secured a winning goal at the 89th minute when substitute Gregory James beat Williams to Kemar Dawkins' rebound and hit the second chance into the back of the net, only for the assistant referee to wave offside.

"That was a goal, that was a winning goal," insisted Russia's coach Audley Thomas. "I''m so disappointed with the assistant referee's decision. The referees are making the assistant referees rule them but that's the way life goes."

Though they will be invading opposing territory for the return match at Petersfield High School, Thomas doesn't think they're at a disadvantage.

Home advantage

"It's not going to affect my chances because that's my field, that's the field I'm used to," he pointed out. Thomas is the coach of the Petersfield daCosta Cup team and they use the Petersfield home ground. His opposite number, Eric Porter, has been encouraged big time by the display of his lower division team and is looking forward to a real uprising.

"I feel very, very good about the performance because the guys are not training. But we tried hard as we have just come off our physical work," Porter noted. "We should have won the game still because we got many goalscoring chances."

Referring to the upcoming match, Porter expressed certainty.

"I know that is a win for me because the team will be stronger. This is a soft team to my team, man."

- A.B.