ON New Year’s night what started as an evenly matched encounter developed into a see-saw battle then was marred by a referee’s poor decisions as Georgetown All Stars claimed the final win of the Bounce Back Football tournament.

The event, which was a collaboration of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) and the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation (K&S), saw the eventual victors defeat Linden 1-0 compliments of a Kelsey Benjamin goal.

After two nights of action, Benjamin was adjudged the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and also picked up the Highest Goalscorer’s award.

Meanwhile, Linden custodian Sese Norville claimed the Best Goalkeeper and Best Young Player awards.
For their winning efforts, Georgetown carted off with $1M while the runners-up pocketed $500 000.
Friday night’s match started promptly at 18:00hrs with Linden playing their usual composed football which often halted the opposition rushing format of play.

As time progressed opportunities gracefully presented itself but neither side successfully capitalised.
Both sides found the back of the net in the first half but they were offside-influenced and thus ruled out.
In the second half with the scores deadlocked at nil, it started to become evident that the on-field referee Sherwin Johnson began to blow some questionable calls.

He rounded off his poor calling with a terrible decision to ignore his linesman from a clear foul and play the advantage aspect.

At this point, Georgetown launched an almost unchallenged counterattack as several of the Linden side were appealing the foul because the linesman’s flag was up.

That attack allowed the stumbling Benjamin to bury his effort past first post after storming down the left flank.
Even after the goal was scored, Lindeners tried to appeal but Johnson was not having any complaints. He armed himself with the yellow card and seemed content to issue fouls until the issue ironed itself out.

According to the job description of a linesman, all decisions by the assistant referees are only advisory to the referee; their decisions are not binding and the referee is allowed to overrule an assistant.
That sequence in play obviously daunted the spirits of the Linden side who were completely controlling the match. Johnson’s calls became more relaxed following that incident.

After that lone goal in the 69th minute, Linden began stepping up their attack but were unfortunate to not find the equaliser even with some threatening chances near goal.

When the regulation time whistle sounded the victory seemed shallow for the winners from their joyless actions.
Meanwhile, the tournament collaborators, who garnered support from ExxonMobil, Mohamed’s Enterprise, Japarts, Trophy Stall, KFC and other entities, expressed their gratitude at the event’s presentation ceremony.