Direct TV Paradise savaged Mackeson Brittons Hill 6-0 thanks to a hat-trick from striker Jabarry Chandler, during the ongoing 2015 Digicel Barbados Football Association’s Premier League played at the Wildey, St Michael AstroTurf last night.
Solaris Pinelands were also in fine form and won 3-1 over Clayton’s Kola Tonic Notre Dame also at the AstroTurf.
In the featured game Paradise clearly took a liking to Brittons Hill defence, or lack thereof. That at times gave too much room and allowed Paradise easy access to the goal area. Chandler began the onslaught in the 23rd minute when he collected the ball inside the 18-yard box and buried it into the back of the nets. Three minutes later Kenny Sealy struck another to give Paradise a 2-0 advantage.
Paradise striker Jabarry Chandler scored a hat-trick.
Brittons Hill were definitely missing the services of their top striker Dwayne Stanford. Curtis Odle, who has been having a great season so far, made his usual attacking plays along with striker Romell Bynoe but despite their efforts, Paradise counterattacked frequently, held majority of the ball possession and scored whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Goal number three came for Paradise when midfielder Gregg Mandeville shifted custodian Tennyson Mings in the 36th minute in a one-on-one situation and easily tapped it into the back of the nets.
Brittons Hill just could not get their act together and even though Odle pulled his weight in the middle and had Paradise’s defenders on the backfoot at times, his lack of game focus and frequent outbursts towards the referee when things did not go in his favour resulted in him being substituted by coach Fabian Wharton just a few minutes before the conclusion of the first half.
With just one minute to go before half time in the 44th minute Brittons Hill gave another easy goal away when one of their defenders had the ball in his possession, tried to make a pass back to keeper Mings but mistakenly placed the ball in the opposite direction which allowed Paradise striker Armando Lashley to run on to the ball and converted to give his side a 4-0 advantage leading into the second half.
When the second half commenced Brittons Hill were definitely on the attack as expected and they took two consecutive strikes at goal but nothing materialized. Paradise’s defenders Zico Phillips, Jonathan Straker and Andre Bourne did well to stop Brittons Hill from scoring at this stage.
With those three at the back life was made hard for Brittons Hill and Chandler came back in the 77th minute and managed to squeeze one past Mings who was not having the best night out. Then Chandler went for the kill when he broke with the ball from the left inside the 18-yard box and struck it comfortably past Brittons Hill’s defence and into the back of the nets for an easy goal.
In the other game played Notre Dame took the lead 28 minutes into the game through John “Nobby” Parris. In the 42nd minute Pinelands’ captain Arantees Lawrence levelled the scores and it remained 1-1 going into halftime.
Pinelands captain Arantees Lawrence (left) keeps a close mark on Shane Mottley of Notre Dame.
Notre Dame who are currently in seventh place on 19 points and Pinelands in eighth on 18, are two evenly matched teams and it could have been anybody’s game in the second half. But Pinelands found the edge thanks to Lionel Paul who scored twice, the first in the 56th minute when Lawrence ran with the ball down the left flank and squared it to Paul who did the rest by placing it into the back of the nets.
Then in another similar play Pinelands defender Jamar Perch made a cross from the left flank to the top of the 18-yard box to danger man Paul who composed himself well and got the ball past about four Notre Dame defenders and goalkeeper Kareem Farrell.
(Photographs by Morissa Lindsay)