Three-time defending champions Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United recorded yet another overwhelming victory when action in the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) Cellink Plus 2009 Premier League continued at the Tucville Playfield on Sunday.
Alpha hammered Flamingo Football Club 8–1 in the curtain-raiser of the double header which had Sunburst Camptown getting past BK International Western Tigers 1–0 in the feature match-up.
These wins for Alpha and Camptown make it two-for-two as they are now on top of the table with six points each, while Flamingo and Western Tigers are yet to score a point. Alpha, led by a sterling hat-trick from Shawn Bishop and doubles from Kevin Smith and Howard Lowe, steamrolled Flamingo for the entire 90 minutes of play.
Alpha applied early pressure against their unfit, less-skilled opponents in the match and found a breakthrough as early as the ninth minute from a Kevin Smith strike.
A two-goal lead was then established owing to a mistake from Flamingo’s Errol Singh (Flam) who fouled an Alpha player in the 18-yard box giving them a penalty kick which was successfully taken by Bishop who recorded his first goal in the 18th minute.
An unassailable three-goal lead came just four minutes later when Howard Lowe recorded the first goal of his double to end the first half 3–0. When play resumed Lowe picked up from where he left off and found the back of the net in the 54th minute. Then his teammate Quincy Madramotoo made his presence felt two minutes later to make it 5–0 in Alpha’s favour.
A twist of events occurred for a while and a Leon Alleyne strike in the 63rd minute for Flamingo prevented a whitewash but the game returned to its earlier format as Alpha regained their five-goal lead in the 68th minute when Smith found his mark. Bishop without a second thought put the nail in the coffin recording his double in the 83rd minute, then his hat-trick six minutes later.
In the Camptown/Tigers showdown both teams had equal chances but were unable to score as they lacked the ability to finish near the goal mouth.
Finally, there was a breakthrough and the 2008 runner-up Camptown drew first blood in the 80th minute with a tremendous Troy Prescod blow from just on top of the 18-yard box that rocketed off his left foot and steamed pass the Western Tigers custodian.
Camptown who searched all night for that one goal defended it to the end as if it were gold to record their second win and three points in the tourney.
