By Rawle Toney in Suriname

IT was an offside that even Stevie Wonder would’ve seen, but the referee assistant kept his flag down and allowed a goal from Suriname’s Damian Panale which ultimately became the strike that sunk Guyana 1-0 and handed the home side the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) Male Football title. So big was the offside, that the Surinamese supporters who gathered at the Franklin Essed Stadium, booed the Referee Assistant. The Referee from Guyana who carried the whistle was in a position to disallow the goal, but pointed to the Centre line, signaling Suriname’s advantage midway through the first half.It was a demoralising blow, but following the narrative of the game, Guyana should’ve been up by at least three goals if they had only converted half of the chances created. From kickoff, Shane Haynes, who scored during Guyana’s 1-1 draw with Suriname last Friday, missed an open goal after evading the Surinamese goalkeeper but patted it too softly. The ball trickled past the goal line.

Haynes was a bother for Suriname whenever he was able to get the ball, but Guyana’s midfield was poor in distributing, and the New Silvercity Secondary School student had to work extra hard. Suriname had no match for his subliminal speed and ball control, but he was unsuccessful in his attempt to covert those chances to goals. Guyana also saw one of their many attempts in the first half crashing off the crossbar. The half ended 1 – 0. Coach Sampson Gilbert made a few changes with the hope of finding an equalizer and even the ‘winner’ but nothing changed.

“There were several factors that affected my players  off the field” Gilbert explained as he praised the performance of his team in the competition. “For example, I haven’t eaten since breakfast because of the food they’re giving us, and my players complained about it (the food) as well. You give athletes some of the things they’re giving us and that’s something they will have to look into” said the usually outspoken coach.
Nonetheless, Sampson congratulated the players for being a disciplined bunch, both on and off the field, and said he was happy “the guys kept to our game plan, played the system, and was able to create a series of chances which we should’ve scored.”