Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
Tivoli's captain, Jermaine Allen, lifts the ISSA/Pepsi/JN Walker Cup following a 6-5 penalty shoot-out victory over Calabar yesterday at the National Stadium. Scores were tied 1-1 at the end of full time. - Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
TIVOLI GARDEN'S Richard Stern fired wide of substitute goalkeeper Curtis Chickroy to give his team a narrow 6-5 sudden death penalty shoot-out victory over Calabar High in a nail-biting finish to the ISSA/Pepsi/JN Walker Cup final at the National Stadium yesterday.
Tivoli Gardens started the encounter brightly with lengthy spells of possession but they failed to capitalise on any of their early opportunities and, against the run of play, it was bustling Calabar who put their noses in front.
A free kick, conceded just outside of the Tivoli 18-yard box, produced a well-executed play. Cleyon Brown ran on to strike a fierce shot, with the ball curling away from a fully stretched Tivoli custodian Horace Nelson who was powerless to stop the ball from flying into the back of the net.
Tivoli began the second half with the better of the play as they did the first, but the all-important equaliser seemed to be just out of their reach.
It took some magic from captain Jermaine Allen and a bit of luck to bring them level. Allen whipped a free kick, conceded about five metres from the left corner flag, right across the goal. The ball hit the right post and ended up into the back of the net, giving his team a 65th minute equaliser.
TIRING CALABAR
Spurred on by the goal, possession was once again all Tivoli's as they looked to take the game away from a seemingly tiring Calabar.
Their ambitions of doing so would, however, receive a major blow when centre half Robert Williams received a second yellow card for a rash challenge. But undaunted, a short staffed Tivoli held on for the rest of normal time and throughout injury time to set up a thrilling end to the encounter.
A power outage gave patrons another anxious 10 minutes to wait until play could resume.
The shoot-out saw Tivoli custodian Horatio Nelson coming up big as he dived full stretch to deny Akeem Bennett and Shane Bygrave who failed to follow the example of teammates Robert Palmer, Marlon Smith, Kirk Duckworth, Lennox Creary and Kabari Palmer.
The scorers for Tivoli were Allen, Michael Spence, Marlon Foster, Alexander Jack, Damion McCreath and Stern.
