FOR THE PAST four years, the Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover coached Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United have been a dominant force on the local football stage, rebounding from early losses in the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Super League tournament amongst others, to come out victorious at the end of it all.

When the Slingerz Football Club was formed earlier this year with a star studded lineup, some of whom represented Alpha at one time or the other, many football pundits were eagerly anticipating a Slingerz/Alpha clash, since the West Side team had aspirations of being the best team not only in Guyana, but the Caribbean.
There is nothing wrong when an individual dream to be in the big picture, however, there is a well known saying in the sports fraternity which goes like this, “To be the best, you have to beat the best.”
The organisers of the recently concluded Mayor’s Cup football tournament handed local pundits their hearts desire in the draw, which saw Slingerz meeting Alpha in the final at the Georgetown Football Club ground on Sunday last.
The hundreds who swarmed the venue to witness the action, must have had their money on a Slingerz upset, taking into consideration that Dwain Jacobs, Slingerz’ skipper had migrated from Alpha just before the 23rd edition of the Kashif and Shanghai tournament, in which he led Buxton United to a maiden win.
However, he found himself in problems with the administrators of the East Coast based Kashif and Shanghai champions, to which he moved to the West Side instead of returning home to Alpha, in true “Prodigal Son” style.
Another proverb, “Never curse the bridge you have crossed” is also well known to Guyanese and while Jacobs may not have created any major problems with the Alpha administration, what he forgot or failed to realize, is that Dover knows his playing tricks inside out.
“Our strategy was to neutralize and cut all the support lines to their most influential player Dwain Jacobs, which by extension would neutralize the team and made things much easier for us,” said Dover after his team’s win.
They did that to perfection by stopping and intercepting the numerous passes that were intended for Jacobs, following Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson’s 9th minute goal which came from a weighted cross from the hard working Dwight Peters on the left wing, to come away with a 1-0 victory and the G$1M first place prize that is being complemented by hampers from Ricks and Sari.
Not only did the win confirmed Alpha’s dominance on the local scene, but also sent Slingerz technical staff back to the drawing board, where they are expected to regroup and come up with a plan to stop the national champions in the future.
They will have at their disposal, $500,000-their second placed spoils in the Mayor’s Cup- to do so, while the Guyana Defence Force who copped third place without facing an opponent, received $300,000, at the presentation ceremony that took place in the Mayor Hamilton Greene’s office yesterday morning.
Not only did Alpha dominate the tournament, but they did so with the prize giving ceremony, as their skipper Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams took home the mattress compliments of (A.H&L Kissoon) and microwave (Keishar’s) for his five goals scored in the tournament, the most by any player.
Their central defensive midfielder Philbert Moffat was named the Most Valuable Player for which he will receive a television set from Giftland OfficeMax. (Calvin Roberts)