Daraine Luton, Freelance WriterJERMAINE ALLEN scored a hat-trick at the Edward Seaga Stadium yesterday to help Tivoli Gardens beat St. George's College 4-3 in their return leg ISSA/Pepsi/JN Manning Cup first-round game.
Allen's three strikes were from dead ball situations - two penalties (12th and 17th minutes) and a freekick which he scored in the 44th minute.
Despite his clinical finishing, Tivoli Gardens almost gave away the three points to the Neville 'Bertis' Bell-coached side.
The first half, which yielded six goals, was dominated by the home team. The menacing Richard Stern, who had a hand in all of his team's four goals, along with his co-striker, Michael Spence, created problems for the St. George's defence - much to the amusement of the home crowd.
Stern set up the first goal when he fed Spence a sweet pass in the penalty box but in the process of weaving his way into the penalty area he was fouled, leaving referee Garnet Page with no option but to point to the spot. Allen did not miss.
The potentially deadly forward combination soon lifted the score to 3-0, as Allen again hit home from the penalty spot while Spence finished off a quick counter-attack move on 26 minutes.
tivoli lose sight
The three-goal comfort zone proved to be poison for Tivoli. They lost sight of the fact that their custodian, Andrew Hylton, is not the best between the sticks and when Robert Williams made a back pass to him in the 34th minute the cookie began to crumble.
Hylton, trying to beat Leonard Walker, lost the ball and proceeded to take out the attacker but succeeded in giving up a penalty which Kemal Malcolm converted. Two minutes later, Jermaine Gardner scored a freak goal from 40 yards - the shot saw the goalie allowing the ball to bounce over his head and into the goal despite him getting a touch.
Even though Allen scored his 11th goal of the Manning Cup a minute from the interval, Tivoli's coach, Dave Clarke, felt Hylton was a liability and replaced him with the more technically sound Christopher Ayre.
With St. George's ruling the second half, Ayre was called upon on a couple of occasions to protect Tivoli's lead and he duly obliged. He, however, conceded a goal in the 76th minute after Shammar Shelton got on to the end of Walker's freekick and hit the ball well out of his reach.
Tivoli at that time were trying to come to grips with the loss of Stern who left the field with a suspected broken nose after been hit in the face by a St. George's defender.
clarke not happy
Though happy with the win, Clarke said he was not happy with the way the team played.
"You can't be leading 4-2 and play the way we did ... we gave up the ball without much fight," Clarke said.
Meanwhile, Bell said he was very disappointed with the way his team played.
"I thought we played badly. It is one game we want to forget immediately. It was not us out there," said Bell of his team that gave up possession of the ball even when they were not forced to do so.
