Joe Public’s striker, Kerry Baptiste made amends for missing a penalty, scoring in the 72nd minute to give the T&T’s senior footballers a 3-2 win over St Kitts/Nevis on Sunday night at the Warner Park, in Basseterre. This was the first victory for head coach Russell Latapy since he took over the reigns of the national team, but he would have preferred it to be a much more convincing one, as the visitors missed a couple of good scoring opportunities.
The opening goal came in the 23rd minute when a right side corner by Baptiste fell perfectly for Abu Bakr to clinically side foot past custodian Akile Byron from just inside the six yard box. Seven minutes later the lead was doubled, after a right side cross was partially cleared and Atulla Guerra hit a one-time right footed volley from just on the edge of the 18-yard box, which took a slight deflection from Keyeno Thomas before it rocked the net. T&T should have made it 3-0 by the half, however, Baptiste’s penalty was pushed onto the crossbar by Byron.
St Kitts was not prepared to go down without a fight and pulled a goal back in the 48th minute. A ball was floated over from the left, deep into the area and was headed down to the feet of Ian Lake, who slammed the ball into the net from close range. The equalising goal had a better build up to it and Williams got behind of the T&T defence to pick up possession and turned well before firing low past Phillip.
The eventual winner came when Edwards made his way up the left before squaring for Baptiste to nail home from close up, with 28 minutes in regulation time remaining. Baptiste was once again guilty as he missed a sitter after Andre Toussaint, who decided against shooting from point blank range, and squared a pass for his teammate who dragged his effort wide.
