SWAN Football Team, comprising a number of players drawn from their Under-15 and U-18 teams, stood firmly to the challenge as they disposed of St Cuthbert’s Mission 4-2 in a three-way competition to select a team to represent Region Four in the 2018 Heritage football competition.

Playing at the St Cuthbert’s Mission ground, the well-uniformed Swan team took on St Cuthbert’s Mission, who evidently had a number of older players, making the contest a ‘David versus Goliath’ battle.

Swan opened the scoring in the 11th minute through Eran Hussain who skilfully dribbled three players from the opposing team before hitting the ball into the net with a solid right foot volley.

St Cuthbert’s Mission had a perfect opportunity to level the score four minutes later through a penalty, taken by Lorenzo Clenkian but his shot went over the crossbar.

However, 23 minutes into the game St Cuthbert’s equalised the score at one-all when Zack Ferreira stunned Swan goalkeeper with a terrific kick that went straight into the net.

Playing a better game, Swan scored their second goal in the 31st minute through Mellon Joseph and held unto the one-goal lead until halftime. However, in the 53rd minute of the second half Swan’s lead was once again increased through Ishmael Pulsram.

Edson Williams upped the score in the 57th minute, thus condemning St Cuthbert’s Mission to what was going to be a heavy defeat as the score read 4-1 in favour of Swan.

A determined St Cuthbert’s Mission team tried hard to reduce the score and were able to pull one back in the 59th minute through Leo Evans but the final whistle blew with the score 4-2.

Coach and manager of the Swan Football Team, Andre Gonsalves expressed satisfaction over his team’s win noting that the players stuck to their original game plan of seeking to control the ball, while looking for opportunities to score.

“I think we may have missed about two or three scoring opportunities but overall we played very well and it is reflected in the results,” he said. Gonsalves expressed confidence that his team would win the playoff, thus earning the right to represent Region Four at the National Heritage competition.

This is our first year playing in the competition as we pulled out last year before the playoffs owing to what we termed unprofessional and unsportsmanlike behaviour of some of the players representing other teams.

However, thus year we are here and I can assure you that while we are fielding a young team the guys are very determined to win this playoff,” Gonsalves declared.

St Cuthbert’s Mission will now play Laluni football team with the winners facing Swan in the final for the opportunity to represent Region Four at the National Heritage Games set for this weekend in Georgetown.