Opening night dampened by crowd trouble as feature game abandoned

Oct 25, 2009 Sports

3rd Annual NAMILCO Football Festival

By Franklin Wilson

What was turning out to be an exhilarating night of football on the opening day of the 3rd Annual 2009 NAMILCO Football Festival was dampened by indiscipline on the part of one spectator which led to the abandonment of the feature game between Pele and upstarts Riddim Squad.
The game was shaping up into a ding dong duel but was discontinued with 9 minutes remaining to full time and the scores tied at 1-1. Riddim Squad had taken the lead in the 60th minute but Pele digging in hard and trying their utmost to avoid another upset defeat found the equalizer 20 minutes after finding themselves behind.
It was moments after their neutralizer that the game was abandoned by the referee following a brawl among some supporters which resulted in about three persons receiving stab wounds following the fracas.
The outcome of the game would now be decided by the Guyana Football Federation following the submission of reports by the organisers, Fruta Conquerors Football club and the Referee. Kaieteur Sport understands that the respective reports have already been submitted and a decision is likely early this week.
In the opening game of the tournament, Sunburst Camptown, playing some sloppy football at times were still able to brush aside Uprising 4-1. The result could have been much more devastating for Uprising were it not for some glaring misses by some of the Campbellville based Camptown players.
Lance Rolston, clearly on a night that showed he was out of sync found himself alone at the top of the six yard box with an open goal and to the utter dismay of his teammates and fans somehow succeeded in blasting the ball way over the northern goal after receiving a beautiful pass from Reshawn Sandiford. Sandiford himself would later mess up opportunities he had to score.
Kwame La Fleur had earlier put Camptown ahead with a well taken volley in the 26th minute; Rolston made amends when he finally was able to bury one in the 58th minute, Telson McKinnon disturbed the nets in the 67th minute after dribbling a few defenders and the goalkeeper to finish clinically.
Nigel Codrington capped a fine night with a trademark goal of his own from a free kick just outside the box, his shot beating the four-man wall and the keeper at the near post. Rensford Coolridge had pulled one back for Uprising in the 60th minute.
Before the commencement of the game, the players and referees were met by Executive members of NAMILCO, Bert Sukhai (Managing Director), Financial Controller Automaram Lakeram, Engineer Ralph Hemsing along with members of Global Technology and Fruta Conquerors.
On each night of the competition, fans will win hampers with products produced by NAMILCO. Two lucky fans walked away with hampers on the opening night and according to Managing Director Bert Sukhai, it will get better as the tournament progresses.

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Opening night dampened by crowd trouble as feature game abandoned

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