TOURNAMENT favourites Western Tigers and Riddim Squad have advanced to the final of the 2015/2016 Banks Beer Knockout football tournament, following semi-final action at the Georgetown Football Club ground, Tuesday evening.Taking on New Amsterdam United in the first semi-final, the Western Tigers side looked to get on the sheets early on – something that placed the New Amsterdam defence as a target for the Western Tigers forwards.

Long balls were the order of the first half as the Western side attempted to pierce the opposition goal, with the few counterattacks coming from the NA side also proving futile.
The first breakthrough of the game came in the 72nd minute when Ryan Adolph found the back of the net after a fumble by the NA goalie.
That opened the floodgates as Dwayne Ali scored the second in the 82nd and Randolph Wagner completed the third in fine style when he slipped the two defenders and unleashed a masterful shot past the keeper.
Speaking after the game, Wagner contended, “We (are) looking to pull it off. We haven’t played football for a long time; we out there all the time working so we can’t put out hard work and don’t get results.”
Meanwhile in game two, Riddim Squad had to work for their final spot.
Santos FC opened the scoring early, after Jobe Caesar poached a pass just outside the box and utilised some fancy footwork to split two defenders and draw the keeper before tucking it into the left hand side of the box, out of the reach of the keeper who dove right.
However, Riddim Squad equalised in the 22nd minute after a foolish tackle from behind in the box by a Santos defender brought the attacker down and Sceyon Hope made no mistake in powering the shot home from the spot.
Both teams kept pushing for the equaliser with the second half and two periods of extra time only bringing unsuccessful close chances and whizzing shots.
It came down to penalties for the Riddim Squad team who managed to convert three of their five penalties while the Santos side had three blocked and only managed to score two.
Captain Hope after the match said, “We were hoping that we could recover but we lost two main players which kind of set us back but the coach implemented a defender and midfielder; they come in the game with a positive but it could have been better if the two players had been on the field.”
Tomorrow’s final will begin at 20:30hrs and will be preceded by the third-place playoff between Santos and their New Amsterdam counterparts.