ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, Sunday, October 24th 2010 – Grenada National Stadium, Grenada: Grenada confirmed their passage through to join Guadeloupe Martinique and defending champions Jamaica in the Digicel Cup Finals in late November with a hard fought win over a dogged St Kitts and Nevis in Group E.
Grenada started brightly in front of a strong home crowd of over 4,786 and almost opened the scoring through home favourite Kitson Bain who seemed destined to score but for a last minute block from Williams, after a beautiful pass from Charles.
The home crowd did not have long to wait to get on their feet and cheer when on 15 minutes Facey converted from 4 yards after a corner kick from Charles somehow came through the crowded goal mouth to the fortunate striker who did not have to be asked twice for such a golden opportunity.
Two minutes later and Facey almost doubled his account as his thunderous shot from 25 yards flew past the right hand post of Richards.
Facey did eventually double his and Grenada’s tally when he latched onto a beautiful through ball from Bain and lifted the ball over the advancing Richards to make it 2 nil.
The ecstatic crowd were in hysterics two minutes later when a carbon copy of the second goal occurred and Bain somehow cleared the cross bar with his lofted shot on this occasion to keep St Kitts in with a fighting chance.
Facey who was born in the UK to a Jamaican mother and a Grenadian Father bossed the St Kitts defence and looked odds on for his hat trick before half time, which, thankfully for the game as a contest, did not occur.
The second half continued with Grenadian dominance and, but for an acrobatic finger tip save from Richards after a fantastic looped header from skipper Modeste on the edge of the box, it would surely have been 3-0.
On 68 minutes St Kitts had their best chance of the game when Lake broke free from his own half and as he raced through squared the ball back for Isaac who had sprinted 40 yards in support but rather than take his chance with the goal at his mercy, his attempted pass to Clark was easily cleared.
On 82 minutes Isaac almost made up for his earlier miss when the diminutive striker rose unchallenged to head Lake’s cross against the post and into the safety of Baptiste’s grateful arms.
Kitts hopes were dealt a severe blow when Lake was given his marching orders for an elbow in the head to full back Curt Rennie. This kept the unusual stat alive of at least one sending off in every game of Group E to date.
Grenada then took advantage of the numerical superiority and but for some grandiose long range shooting from the home side could have inflicted a larger scoreline.
It ended to the delight of the large home crowd who cheered their heroes through to another Digicel Cup finals and will return Tuesday to see them take on Guadeloupe to try end the group as winners. St Kitts and Puerto Rico will only have pride to play for in their final Digicel Cup game on Tuesday as they end another fantastic journey in the main football tournament in the Caribbean.
For more information, access to match images and live score updates, visit www.digicelfootball.com.
Grenada: 1 Andre Baptiste 2 Shannon Phillip 4 Curt Rennie 5 Cassim Langaigne 6 Marc Marshall 8 Delroy Facey (12 Denron Daniel 65 mins) 9 Ricky Charles 10 Kitson Bain (21. Lashley Cyrus 75mins)11 Anthony Modeste (Capt) 19 Patrick Modeste (Kyle Joseph 65 mins) 20 Shane Rennie
Coach: N. Simpson
St. Kitts & Nevis: 18 Alexis Richards 3. Shashi Isaac (5. Tishan Hanley 76 mins) 4 Kareem Mitchum 7 George Isaac 8 Alexis Saddler 9 Jevon Francis (11. Stephen Clark 62 mins) 10 Ian Lake 17 Gerard Williams 13 Thrizen Leader (Capt) 14 Tiran Hanley (6.Orlando Mitchum 70 mins) 15 Errol O’Loughlin
Coach: Clinton Percival
Referee: Kevin Morrison (Jamaica)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Moses (Barbados)
Assistant Referee 2: Adrian Goddard (Barbados)
Match Commissioner Maurice Victoire (Martinique)
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