As the National Super League Championship Division winds down, the race to the title is between leaders Cunupia FC and University of Trinidad and Tobago.
On Wednesday, UTT crushed fourth-placed Saddle Hill Hotspur 8-3 in a rescheduled contest at the UTT Ground in O’Meara, Arima.
It was the most goals they have scored against any team this season.
Ex-national defender/ midfielder Kevaughn Connell (eighth, 32nd and 55th minutes) and Dillon Bartholomew (17th, 37th and 73rd) each registered hattricks for the hosts, while Theon James (23rd) and Shaquille Smith (84th) got the others.
A pair of former national ace strikers, Stern John (58th) and Hector Sam (82nd), as well as Andre Rampersad (80th) replied for Saddle Hill. However, an e-mail which was issued to members of the media as well as officials in the local football fraternity by a sender named ‘Dennis Sookraj’ questioned the result.
Cunupia FC have completed all their games and have a total of 29 points from 15 games, while UTT are next with 26 points from 14 games.
However, UTT have a goal difference of plus 16 compared to Cunupia’s 13, which means that UTT have to win their last league game tomorrow against Youth Stars, at the Cyd Gray Ground in Roxborough, to leapfrog Cunupia and cop the title.
Anthony Harford, director of the All Sports Promotions Limited - the organising body for the National Super League - rubbished claims that teams are not playing to their potential in order to decide results. “I don’t know who (Dennis Sookraj) is,” said Harford. “I am not aware of any reports of anyone suggesting that there is any sort of matchfixing or so on.” He continued, “the minute I start hearing about those things, I will call everybody into a meeting and say ‘you all are going down the wrong street’. I’ve heard people say they’ve suffered as a result of bad refereeing.
“But, out of the 14 years I’ve been in the Super League, I’ve never once heard an iota of discussion about matchfixing.” And a representative from UTT emphasised the fact that they have a solid team, both in terms of players and technical staff.
“The teams we’re meeting don’t have the physicality to keep up for 90 minutes,” the UTT representative said. “The score would look like it was bought out but Saddle Hill hadn’t trained since their last game, according to their coach.” The UTT representative stressed that their players are well-trained and taken care of and were able to nullify Saddle Hill’s game plan, which was “just to get the ball to Stern and Sam.” A member of the Cunupia FC team, who was in attendance at Wednesday’s match, said he was stunned by the magnitude of Saddle Hill’s defeat but said he would never accuse anyone of anything sinister.
He too did not know any ‘Dennis Sookraj’.