Barbican “humbled” at home in RSPL

Photo: Humble Lion forward Devon Hodges protects the ball from Barbican captain Ramone McGregor in their Red Stripe Premier League clash on Wednesday. Hodges scored one of his team’s goals as they routed their opponents 4-0.

Barbican FC found themselves on the wrong end of a four nil score line against Humble Lion at home on Wednesday to leave them firmly rooted at the foot of the Red Stripe Premier League table. After a creditable 0-0 away to champions Montego Bay United on Sunday, the newly promoted team was expected to kick on against a club that has only just gotten out of the relegation zone.

However, while Humble Lion are a team on the rise, Barbican are clearly still stuck in a mire and found themselves trailing on their home ground after only five minutes when Jermaine Fletcher, who bagged a brace in the game, put his team ahead.

Sean Coleman made it 2-0 when he received a pass from Fletcher and had a simple tap in to double his team’s lead.

Fletcher got his second to make it 3-0 in the 23rd minute to put the game virtually out of the reach of the home team with only a third of the match played.

The game was over as a contest on minute 31 when former national striker Devon Hodges made it 4-0.

Barbican did very little for the rest of the half to suggest that they would seriously threaten the Humble Lion goal.
The second half almost produced a goal within a minute of the restart when Shavon Charlton tried his luck from distance and Humble Lion goalkeeper Damion Crooks had to be alert to tip over for a corner kick.

Shawn Lawes was denied in the 50th minute when his powerful goal bound header was cleared off the line by Ricardo Campbell as Barbican searched for a way back into the contest.

With thirty minutes left in the game Jermaine Christian had a golden opportunity when left unmarked at the back post, but the Humble Lion skipper made a mess of the chance showing little conviction with his effort.

Lennox Russell refused to give up and did brilliantly well to get by two defenders going across the face of goal before angling his body to fire on target but Crooks batted away the effort.

That was as close as Barbican would come for the rest of the contest as Humble Lion did a very good job managing the game.

Donovan Duckie who said it was good to be back on the sidelines was happy with his team’s first half performance.

“It was a good game,” he declared. “We did well. We were quicker to the ball and we were more explosive than them, which gave us the edge in the first half.

“The solid foundation laid down by myself and Linval Wilson is beginning to pay off. We are five games unbeaten and three from three. We have a quality coaching staff and a set of players willing to work. We are hoping to continue on the same path, to build on this and see where it takes us.”

Raymond Beckford was at his wits end to try and explain the debacle after the creditable performance on the previous match day.

“We have to go back and look at why we are here. We started flat today, we should have started with more fire.
“We should have gotten at least a point today or won the game. We played very well against Mobay but we played poorly today.”

The win for Humble Lion moved them up to 22 points and seventh spot ahead of the likes of Sporting Central and Cavalier SC.

Barbican however must now be worried about being cut adrift as they currently have only 15 points, the same as fellow strugglers Reno, five less than tenth place Sporting Central.