Mona advance to KSAFA Championship League final
...Mountain View seal spot in Major League showdown
REAL Mona FC progressed to the final of the Kingston & St Andrew Football Association (Ksafa)/campari Championship League after registering a come-from-behind 2-1 win against Boys’ Town FC at the Stadium East field on Thursday .
In the opening encounter at the venue, Mountain View FC also came from behind to beat Maxfield Park FC 3-1 to book their spot in the Major League final.
Weather permitting, the other finalists in both competitions will be decided on Sunday at Stadium East.
At 5:00 pm, Maverley Hughenden are scheduled to oppose New Kingston in the Major League, while at 7:00 pm, Meadforest and Barbican are to lock horns in the Championship League.
In the curtain-raiser on Thursday, Mountain View fell behind to an own goal following a corner kick in the 21st minute, but drew level five minutes later when Troyland Williams converted from the penalty spot.
The scores remained that way at half-time, and with no further goal in the second half, the match went to extra time. Dwayne Trowers then became the hero for Mountain View in extra time when he scored two exquisite goals to give his team a 3-1 win and a deserved spot in the final.
Mountain View Coach Jahmai Pettigrew was delighted with the response of his players after they fell behind to the own goal.
“I am pleased with how we responded [to going a goal down]. They stuck to the task and responded in an appropriate way. We got carried away a bit, but we settled down and started to pass the ball around and that’s why we got the better of Maxfield,” he said.
In the feature game, Boys’ Town were 10 minutes away from a place in the final when they were pegged back by Real Mona.
Boys’ Town took the lead through a first-half own goal conceded by Andrew Peddlar in the 30th minute, but they failed to press home the advantage.
Both teams were guilty of squandering chances either side of the half-time whistle and it appeared that Boys’ Town were heading for next weekend’s final until Troy Reid equalised in the 80th minute.
Then with the game hanging on a knife’s edge, veteran Girvan Brown tucked away an 89th-minute penalty to steer Real Mona into the final.
“I wasn’t really worried at any point at all because I realised that the Boys’ Town defenders were really making a lot of mistakes once the ball was crossed, so we had to put in some players who could get the ball across the goal,” said Real Mona Head Coach David Lalor.