Photo: Tashana Vincent celebrates her first of two goals for Barbican in the Sherwin Williams Women’s Football League mid[season final. Barbican defeated GC Foster College 4-1.
The much anticipated mid-season finals in the Sherwin Williams Women’s Football league between defending champions Barbican FC and GC Foster College failed to live up to expectations on Saturday at the Stadium East field, as the champions retained their title with a comfortable 4-1 win.
The vastly experienced Barbican team, playing their usually 4-4-2 formation, controlled the game from start to finish barely giving the GC Foster team a look in.
Yolanda Hamilton, playing in her preferred left midfield position, showed the intentions of the champions, when she broke down the left flank in the 5th minute and produced the perfect cross into the middle of the box but Tashana Vincent failed to get on the end of it.
GC Foster answered when they put together a neat play through the midfield before releasing Monique Pryce who blazed her efforts high over the crossbar.
With Alicia “One left” James and Rochelle Bryan controlling the game in the middle of the park, Trudian Mills and Hamilton were left free to roam up and down the flanks. The expected battle between Barbican’s duo of James and Bryan and the GC Foster duo of Pryce and Mitzie Facey never materialized as the GC Foster pair played in spurts on a day when they needed to be at their best.
Tashana Vincent had been below her best since the start of the season but she was clearly up for the game with her movement up front. GC Foster keeper Olivia Reid did well to deny her in the 18th minute, when she dove at the striker’s feet to block a goal bounded effort for a corner.
There was nothing Reid could do in the 21st minute after her defenders failed to clear a penalty and Vincent was on hand to steer the ball into the corner of the net to make it 1-0. Seven minutes later Bryan made it 2-0 when she fired home from just inside the area after she caught the GC Foster defenders flat footed.
GC Foster created one more chance five minutes before the break but Chevin Blair hesitated and the chance was lost when goal keeper Abigail Palmer closed the space. James almost made it 3-0 in first half stoppage time but her curling free kick was pushed over the crossbar for a corner by Ruthann Reece, who replaced an injured Reid in goal for GC Foster earlier in the game.
The fans thought they were in for the contest they expected after GC Foster pulled one back when Melissa Bryan’s powerful shot from distance sailed over the head of Palmer and into the roof of the net. However, Vincent restored her team’s 2 goal cushion in the 56th minute to stifle any GC Foster resistance.
The game was over as a contest just ten minutes later when Reece failed to execute a regulation catch and Bryan who was first to the loose ball, slotted into an empty net to score her second and the team’s four in a lopsided contest.
It was the first time GC Foster was conceding for the season and they will need to do a lot better if they are to seriously challenge for the league title come November.
Losing coach Kurt Brooks blamed poor goal keeping for the loss. “Four errors by the goalkeepers cost us today. It is hard for the players to remain motivated when we concede that way. But we will bounce back from this defeat because there is still a far way to go in the season.”
Charles Edwards, the winninest coach in Women’s football in Jamaica said, “We are aiming to win all three trophies on offer again this season.”
Barbican with the win has extended their unbeaten streak to 42 matches.
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