It was another tough day at the office today for Jabloteh as they faced North East Stars at home in Sangre Grande.
After having had a run of four consecutive victories, intensive training with the national team and two national matches with a President’s XI team against a Grenada XI last week, one would expect Jabloteh’s stars to have been a bit jaded but they were not and in fact were unlucky to lose today.
During the Jabloteh pre-game warm-ups the Pro League Youth MVP 2005 Jason Marcano was bubbling with energy. He came as a substitute for Peter Prosper about the 75th minute but his youthful joy was to be turned to anguish by the end of the game when he had to be stretched off.
The players all knew that it was going to be as physical and tough a battle as they will face all season and it could not have come at a worst time. Jabloteh is set to face Connection away on Tuesday at Ato Boldon Stadium and then away again at Joe Public on Saturday in what is expected to be the fixture of the season. But first there was the matter of getting past North East Stars.
The Stars seemed to be well energized by their heavy home spectator support and played with unmatched aggression and purpose. It is a welcome sign for rivalry in the Pro League to have seen so many vociferous Stars fans fiercely supporting their home team and doing their very best to intimidate the opposition.
They pressed against the ropes surrounding the field and shouted from those sidelines all afternoon. They reserved all praise for their captain Charles ‘Charlie’ Pollard as he marshaled his defence well to neutralize early threats from Prosper, Whitley and Wolfe. Their unfriendly words were specially targeted at their former striker Anton Wolfe who left them to join Jabloteh at the end of last season.
These spectators were determined to give him a hostile reception and cheered every time he lost the ball or was unable to convert a chance. So when in the 25th minute a Vernon Bailey mistake gifted the ball to Wolfe and he over-dribbled and thus lost it - instead of rifling a shot goal-ward -, they were ecstatic.
The first 30 minutes belonged to Jabloteh. They dictated the pace of the game with some searching diagonal passes to Peter Prosper and Anton Wolfe which unsettled the Stars defence and forced them on the back foot. After that it was all North East Stars as Jabloteh struggled to get their slick passing game going on the slow sandy Grande surface.
For Jabloteh, the writing was on the wall from early too. It said clearly that the game was going to be very tough if not impossible to win.
Soon this proved true as the tackles started to come thick and fast from both sides and with increasing ferocity from Stars. At the back of their minds the Jabloteh players must have remembered that the last time Jabloteh and Stars had a bruising encounter in the Big Six tournament late 2005, Jabloteh’s Jamaican midfielder Keith Kelly suffered a broken leg and is yet to return to action for Jabloteh.
Jabloteh’s game began to slow down when the injuries to its players began to stack up. In the 33th minute Whitley was boxed in by Kevin Jeffrey and Leslie Holligan and he skillfully flicked the ball over the heads of both players but received a kick to his face from the high boot of Kevin Jeffrey (for which Jeffrey was promptly yellow carded) for his troubles. The crowd was silent for the moment as everyone waited to see if there was serious injury to their world cup bound talent. But, Whitley was not about to show any weakness and received some treatment before bouncing to his feet and going off the field to return at the referee’s signal.
The spectators held their breath again when another World Cup bound player Cyd Gray had to be carried off after a kick to his left thigh in the 58th minute from Shandel Samuel left him with a dead leg. Nigel Daniel came on for Gray and a few plays later Marcano lost the ball to Kayode McKinnon that allowed Stars to score against the run of play. Mc Kinnon found an unmarked Samuel to the left of Jabloteh’s box who turned and shot past custodian Brian James.
Then the worst came as Jason Marcano was felled in a collision with two defenders in the 90th minute. As he fell on his side there appeared to be a kick by a Stars defender who was attempting to clear the ball but instead connected to Marcano’s right arm while he was on the ground.
For the traveling Jabloteh supporters, this was too much to take and many started to complain loudly about the referee’s handling of the game. Their energetic young star Marcano was suddenly very hurt. His arm was badly broken and a mad rush ensued to ensure that he was immediately treated and shuttled off to hospital. He later had to be rushed down to St. Clair Medical in Port of Spain to have the arm examined by a specialist and then placed in a cast.
But Jabloteh will have to pick themselves up quickly and they will be looking to Tuesday’s match to bounce back with a vengeance against Connection who will also be trying to recover from their 1-0 loss to Joe Public today.
Prior to the Pro League Senior team match there was youth Pro League action. The Angus Eve coached, Susan Khan managed, Jabloteh U16 team battered the North East Stars U16 team into submission with a clinical 9-0 spanking. It was a feat their senior counterparts could not replicate.