THE inaugural Banks DIH sponsored Linden Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ has reached the knockout stage after some exciting nights of enthralling football at various venues in the mining town. This stage of the tournament will kick off tomorrow night at the Amelia’s Ward/ Wisroc Bus Park and continue on Thursday, where the quarter finals will be played followed by the semi finals and finals which is billed for the 5th and 7th May respectively.
The 16 teams who reached this stage of the tournament are Amelia’s Ward Russians, Speightland, Top Class, $100 Cars, Retrieve Unknowns, Team 25, Ituni, Coomacka Mines, Hi Stars, Cherokee Park, Bad Boys, Goal Getters, Star Boys, Eagles, One Mile/ Half Mile and Hackers.
On the final night of the group stages which was played last Saturday at the New Silvercity Secondary School hard court, another attractive crowd was on hand to witness Ricky Flatts and Mark Moses hitting braces for their respective teams.
In the first match of the evening, Star Boys defeated Silver Bullets 3-0, with Flatts recording his double in the 9th and 19th minute, while Orin Drakes added another in the 15th minute.
Moses scored back to back goals in the 8th and 9th minute and along with Dwayne Fordyce, who opened the scoring in the 6th minute and Marlon Joseph’s 19th minute strike, guided Richmond Hill/Fairsrust Combined to a 4-3 victory over Ituni.
Ituni could only blame themselves for the defeat as they squandered a penalty in the final minute after goals were scored by Shawn Cameron in the 13th, Neville Adrian in the 17th and Ulric Murray in the 18th minutes of the match.
In other results, Trainline Warriors and Eagles played to a 2-2 draw with Floyd Major and Elfand Griffith scoring for Trainline Warriors and Trenton Bangaree and Dellon Clarke for the Eagles, while Retrieve Unknowns and Team 25 also drew their game 1-1 behind goals by Retrieve’s Strauch Charles in the 5th and Kennard Grant in the 16th minute.
One Mile/Half Mile edged their opponents Goal Getters 2-1 as Charles Harvey with what could be the goal of the night in the 5th minute, and Kevin Layne in the 14th netted for them while Seon Warrick got the lone goal for Goal Getters.
Amelia’s Ward and Rough and Rugged also played out a 1-1 draw as Marlon Simon scored in the 6th minute for Amelia’s Ward and Quincy Drakes for Rough and Rugged.
Tomorrow’s night action will see Half Mile/One Mile taking on Bad Boys, Goal Getters and Cherokee Park facing each other, Attackers versus Star Boys, Hi- Stars challenging Eagles, Speightland United opposing Ituni,
Team 25 battling Coomacka, Amelia’s Ward Russians taking on $100 Car Park and Top Class going head to head with Retrieve Unknown.