March 5, 2023
The St Kitts and Nevis Premier League consists of 12 teams who play each other twice for a 22 game regular season. In 2021/22 the top 6 qualified for the Championship Round. The sides then played each other once, with no points from the regular season carried forward, and the top two then faced each other over two legs in a grand final. St Paul’s United triumphed 6-1 on aggregate over Conaree United.
St Paul’s were also champions in 2019/20, and with the 2020/21 season not taking place due to Covid, they have won the last two titles, and 6 in total. However, today’s opposition, Newtown United, are the record holders with 16 titles. The bottom two sides are relegated to the 10 team First Division.
Bath United are the only Premier League side who come from Nevis, with the other 11 mostly representing districts across St Kitts. St Paul’s is a parish in the north of the island whilst Newtown is in the capital Basseterre.
Sides do not appear to have designated home grounds. Instead, the usual pattern of fixtures is for two matches to played on the same ground each day over the weekend, two each on Friday and Saturday evenings, and two on Sunday afternoons. So far Sandy Point, Verchilds, Cayon and Newtown have hosted the floodlit evenings, and Warner Park the daylight games on Sunday.
Warner Park is a sporting complex in Basseterre, which includes the cricket stadium that hosted matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, but next door is a football ground with a grass pitch and an official capacity of 3,500.
Matches have now started to be live streamed on Eleven Sports, and highlights of most matches this season can be found on the St Kitts and Nevis FA Facebook page.
St Kitts and Nevis a separated by a narrow three kilometre channel known as “The Narrows”. The population of St Kitts is estimated to be around 40,000 and 15,000 for Nevis.
The St Kitts and Nevis national side are currently ranked 140 in the FIFA world rankings. In the 2022 World Cup Qualifying competition, St Kitts and Nevis surprising topped their group ahead of Trinidad and Tobago. Although they lost their final group game against Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis had already booked their qualification to the Second Round by the time the sides met thanks to victories over Puerto Rico ( 1-0 ), Bahamas ( 4-0 ) and Guyana ( 3-0 ) as Trinidad and Tobago dropped points against Puerto Rico and Bahamas.
St Paul’s’ Keithroy Freeman scored three of the goals. Other goal-scorers included Cardiff City’s Romaine Sawyers, ex-Wycombe and Stevenage forward Rowan Liburd and ex Cheltenham and Oxford City winger Omari Sterling-James, who now plays for Ebbsfleet United. Oxford City defender Andre Burley also featured in the campaign. El Salvador proved too strong in the next round, as St Kitts and Nevis were eliminated 0-6 on aggregate.
Ex-Chelsea and Real Madrid legend Claude Makelele has recently been appointed as Technical Advisor ahead of two CONCACAF Nations League matches at the end of March.
Today’s match was a meeting of two heavy-weights in the league. St Paul’s had started with a 0-0 draw against Old Road Jets but won their next two games. Newtown had won their first two matches before losing 0-2 to Cayon Rockets.
The weather at the 16.15 local time kick-off was sunny with the temperature around 25 degrees. St Paul’s were wearing white shirts with black shorts and socks, and Newtown were in red shirts with white sleeves and red shorts and socks. Oddly, both goal-keepers had the shirt number 99.
The cricket ground was opposite the stand hosting the TV camera, with a grass bank and small terrace where approximately 30 spectators were watching acting as the border between the two stadiums. Behind one goal was a wire fence and then a wall, behind which were residential villas and one building labelled “Football House” !
A large scoreboard was situated in the corner with the cricket ground and there was a raised walkway behind the other goal, with several canopies, presumably where the food and drink outlets were located, and a couple hundred or so spectators watching. The camera never panned around to the main stand so it wasn’t possible to see how many people were watching from there.
.jpg)
The first yellow card of the game came as early as the 4th minute when Newtown’s number 45 deliberately handled the ball to prevent a break. In the early stages, Newtown were playing nice passing football, but it was St Paul’s who were creating the chances. From the free-kick for the handball, they volleyed over from close range, Kalonji Clarke ( 2 caps ) shot from long range at the keeper, and their number 16 curled a left-footed attempt just over after good work by Mahlik Clarke.
Newtown had their first chance in the 14th minute when a St Paul’s defender was robbed of possession and when the ball was laid off to Yohannes Mitchum ( 22 caps ) his shot was screwed wide from the edge of the area. Mitchum was involved again a minute later, playing a 1:2 to make space in the St Paul’s area, but his effort was bravely blocked by the keeper at close range for a corner.
St Paul’s took the lead in the 22nd minute when Kalonji Clarke took a short corner, received the pass back and shot from the edge of the area, his effort beating the Newtown keeper at his near post. It probably should have been saved.
Newtown equalised in the 31st minutes through the lively Mitchum. First the midfielder had a shot directly at the keeper which was gathered at the second attempt. St Paul’s attempted to build from the back but lost possession for Mitchum to go for goal and like the opening goal for St Paul’s, the shot from around 20 yards sneaked past the keeper, whose positioning could be questioned.
Newtown took the lead in the 35th minutes, as centre-back Marvin McSheene loped up to take a free-kick a few yards outside the St Paul’s area and then casually chipped left-footed over the wall and into the top corner.
St Paul’s pressed early in the second half but after a corner was cleared, Newtown broke quickly but the move ended when centre-forward Sylvester Caines blazed wildly and the ball went off near the corner flag.
The game became stop-start, not helped by a couple of injury delays, as neither side was able to exert any influence. The closest to a chance came to Newtown, but after a free-kick from the left was swung into the St Paul’s penalty area, the keeper was able to collect after a couple of ricochets.
Play was held-up for nearly 15 minutes in the 72nd minute when an Ambulance came through a gate and onto the pitch. The camera didn’t show the reason, but presumably someone in the crowd had been taken ill.
With over 20 minutes of added time to be played, St Paul’s equalised in the 102th minute. The Eleven Sports camera completely missed the goal, but the Facebook highlights showed the goal to be a powerful flicked headed by Keithroy Freeman from close to the penalty spot that bounced past the keeper into the far corner. Freeman ( 8 caps ) was the league’s top scorer in 2021/22 with 23 goals.
With still 10 more minutes to be played, the game became end to end as post sides searched for the winner. It was Newtown who took the spoils as Mitchum was left unmarked to control a cross from the left wing and then steer left-footed past the keeper as he advanced of his line. 3-2 to Newtown in the 22nd minute of added time !
Highlights : https://fb.watch/j6Fityg_KF/
No comments:
Post a Comment