St. Kitts defeats Barbados in international friendly

(Source: Barbados FA) Bridgetown, Barbados – In last night’s international friendly at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex, home team Barbados went down to St. Kitts & Nevis 3-1.

The visitors drew first blood with a goal from Kennedy Isles whilst Mario Harte equalized for Barbados during the first half. However, St. Kitts and Nevis netted twice in the second half through goals from Devaughn Elliott and Kiamaree Rogers to come away with the victory.

Poor marking in the 18 yard box for a corner kick allowed the Kittitians to head the ball from the far post back to the near post for an easy finish by Kennedy Isles in the 29th minute. The “Bajans” struck back in the 40th minute when Arantees Lawrence made a quick run down the right and with a low pass to Mario Harte at the near post, the ball was easily slotted pass the goalkeeper.

St. Kitts & Nevis doubled their advantage when Devaughn Elliot scored in the 52nd minute. Leaving the dangerous Elliot unmarked was never advisable and Barbados paid the price. He was able to receive a pass unmarked and from 12 yards away slammed the ball into the back of the net with a thundering left foot shot. Then in the closing seconds of the game substitute Kiamaree Rogers collected a short corner pass and drilled the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the 18 yard box in the 90+5 minute.

Congratulating the St. Kitts and Nevis players on their win Barbados’ Interim Head Coach, Marcos Falopa, believes his team is resilient.

“We have tried new players in this game especially in our defense and this game was a lesson for us. St. Kitts had good players and they played well tonight. I think this game has impacted on the players’ morale, however, we normally bounce back for example when we came back from a 1-0 defeat to USVI then we beat them 4-0. So I am sure we will improve before the FIFA World Cup Qualifier,” said Falopa.

St. Kitts and Nevis Head Coach, Shavon Douglas saw this match as very important for his team’s preparation going into the second round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifier and was not surprised by the margin of victory.

“This game gave us a good opportunity to measure where we are versus where we are looking to go in preparation for our next international match. Our players’ gave us an excellent display of talent and composure and we are happy for the win. I am not surprised by the margin of victory because we trying to focus on scoring more goals as often as possible. We did not get the goals in the first half but we were persistent, we were patient and once the openings came we executed well and put away those goals.”