BK Western Tigers booked a place in the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) Premier League by defeating Riddim Squad 3-1 on Sunday evening, when the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) qualifiers continued on Sunday at the Tucville ground with a triple-header card.

A second-half double from Hubert Pedro in the 62nd and 78th minutes and a first-half goal in the 43rd minute goal off the boot of Randolph Wagner enabled Western Tigers to become the first Georgetown team to join Alpha United and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in the GFF’s 16-team Premier League which is billed to get under way on October 6.
After 43 minutes of play and trailing by the odd goal (0-1), Amos Ramsey found the equaliser for Riddim Squad in the 45th minute.
In the opening game on Sunday, Santos and Pele played to a 0-0 stalemate while in the feature game, Camptown edged Fruta Conquerors 1-0 with the winning goal coming from the boot of Dwayne Lawrence in the second minute of injury time.
Two more Georgetown teams will join 11 other GFF-affiliated teams in the Premier League which will be contested in each association with the host association earning 40 percent of the gate receipts. This will go towards the host association’s developmental plans.
The winning team in the competition will receive $3M, while the other top three teams will earn $2M, $1M and $500 000 respectively.
Wagner sent Western Tigers into the lead after the ball was played from the left side of the field to the centre in Riddim Squad’s half of the field. He ran onto the ball while Riddim Squad’s custodian left his line advancing and was beaten and tucked the ball neatly into an open goal.
Shortly after, the ball was lobbed from the right side corner of the field to Western Tigers’ goal, but custodian Deryck Carter failed to make a clean save and the ball rebounded to Ramsey who placed it into the goal as Carter was flat on the turf.
Both teams showed strength at midfield and both came very close to scoring on a number of occasions, but good goal-keeping, coupled with stout defensive plays, was the hallmark of the first session
In the second session, Western Tigers showed more purpose and started to put together passes, penetrating the opposition’s defence but poor finishing denied them many scoring opportunities.
However, Pedro made the score line 2-1 after the ball was played from the right side to the centre of the field where he latched onto it, caught Riddim Squad custodian off his line and simply patted the ball into an open goal.
Sixteen minutes later Pedro extended the lead from the penalty spot by placing the ball to the top left-hand side of the opposition’s goal while the goalkeeper was going in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, the qualifiers will continue tomorrow at the Tucville ground with a double-header. In the opening game from 18:00hrs, Santos will face Fruta Conquerors while from 20:00hrs Riddim Squad will come up against Camptown.