Still hope for St Bess
Coach of St Bess FC, Linval ‘palla’ Wilson, said the disappointment of losing at the final stages of the South Central Confederation football competition in the last three years has not reduced their interest to continue to try to qualify for the Premier League.
Wilson insists the club’s investors will continue pushing for qualification to the nation’s top-flight competition next season with the same effort and vigour.
St Bess lost 3-1 to Dumbeholden in the final on Sunday at St Elizabeth Technical High School. This year’s loss is the third consecutive time the St Elizabeth-based team have missed out on a Premier League play-off berth at the final stages of the competition. But Wilson says the club’s financiers are in it for the long haul as their objective is to bring top-flight football to that part of the island.
“Last year, they (St Bess) went to the semi and the year before they went to the final and lost.. So it has been three years we have come close, but have failed to make the play-offs,” he said.
“I don’t think the managers are losing interest. We get close and then closer and closer, and one day it will come. I think we will get there because of the fans and the programme we have,” he added.
FRUSTRATION
Dumbeholden went 2-0 up through goals from Lorenzo Dubidad, Horatio McKnight. Nackwayne Brown pulled one back for St Bess after the break and they thought they had an equaliser when they scored just past the hour, but the goal was ruled out and that infuriated St Bess supporters, who vented their frustration by throwing missiles at the match officials and opposing team alike. “It (the loss) put a damper on the community, because the whole community was giving all its support to the team, and what happened due to the officiating was heart-breaking. If we had lost the game without being penalised, I believe they (the fans) would have accepted it better.
“But when they saw what happened, they were mad and upset. A call we should have gotten and a goal we should have gotten wasn’t awarded. We scored what would have been the equaliser and we should have had a penalty, so the spectators were really mad,” he said
“They have been hoping for a team from this region to get into the Premier League and it was taken away from them by poor officiating. But, at the end of the day, football must be the winner, so we have to lick our wounds and come again,” he said.