Out-of-favour Soca Warriors midfielder Keron “Ball Pest” Cummings broke the hearts of Defence Force when he scored three minutes into stoppage time to secure a tense 1-0 win for W Connection to go top of the Digicel T&T Pro League on Tuesday night.
Both teams looked headed for a share of the points, the first for defending champion Defence Force at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar.
However, the nippy Cummings had other ideas and scored past goalkeeper Kevin “Barthez” Graham three minutes into time added on to send his team to the top of the eight-team table on 15 points going into the two-week Christmas holiday break, one ahead of T&TEC.
This after previous leader and debutant T&TEC suffered a shock 4-1 loss at the hands of Police at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.
Police, like Defence Force, only began its season last week due to its involvement in the three-month state of emergency which was imposed by the T&T Government and ended on December 5 and was considered the underdog prior to kick-off.
But, the Lawmen, who drew their opener with St Ann’s Rangers 0-0 before a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Adams Construction San Juan Jabloteh on Saturday, looked a determined unit from the onset and within eight minutes were ahead thanks to Errol Charles.
T&TEC which needed only a draw to enter the Christmas break as table-topper was up for the challenge and drew level on the half-hour mark through former national youth defender Javed Mohammed to leave both teams level at 1-1 at the half.
Charles, a former DirecTV North East defender and snapped up in the off-season by Police, got his second in the 76th minute to restore his team’s lead and before T&TEC could mount a reply, Todd Ryan made it 3-1, three minutes later.
Desperate to get back into the match, T&TEC threw players forward in numbers which left spaces at the back and Kelon Williams duly obliged for Police by netting his team’s fourth on the final whistle to cap off the biggest shock result of the season to date.
At the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, Rangers also pulled off a surprise outcome, 2-1 over Jabloteh, which missed out on a chance of atleast a share of top spot. The “San Juan Kings”, winners of their two pervious matches started brightly with Willis Plaza finding the back of the net as early as the second minute.
But that was the last bit of joy for Jabloteh on the evening as it Port-of-Spain rivals, Rangers got even thanks to national Under-23 striker Cameron Roget in the 29th minute, before Devon Modeste, the scorer of an own-goal in a 1-0 loss to W Connection on Friday, snatched a 51st minute winner.
The in-form Neal & Massy Caledonia AIA made full use of Jabloteh’s slip-up to join the San Juan club on 12 points after it secured a 1-0 triumph over inconsistent DirecTV North East Stars in the first match at Couva.
National senior and Under-23 striker Jamal Gay got the lone item for Caledonia, six minutes after the interval. The league now goes on its two-week Christmas break before resuming on January, 6.
Tuesday’s Digicel T&T Pro League results:
Caledonia 1 (Jamal Gay 47th) vs NE Stars 0
Rangers 2 (Cameron Roget 29th, Devon Modeste 51st) vs Jabloteh 1 (Willis Plaza 2nd)
W Connection 1 (Keron Cummings 90+3rd) vs Defence Force 0
Police 4 (Errol Charles 8th, 76th, Todd Ryan 79th, Kelon Williams 90th) vs T&TEC 1 (Javed Mohammed 30th)
Current standings
Teams P W D L F A Pts
W Connection 8 5 0 3 9 8 15
T&TEC 7 4 2 2 11 6 14
Jabloteh 8 3 3 2 12 11 12
Caledonia 8 4 0 4 10 11 12
NE Stars 8 2 2 4 6 8 8
Rangers 8 2 2 4 8 12 8
Police 3 1 1 1 4 2 4
D/Force 2 0 0 2 2 4 0