Dominica’s Julian Wade scored a hat trick. Photo courtesy of BVIFA
By BVIFA
The Caribbean Cup dream for the BVI is over as they failed to overcome a fast, free flowing Dominica at the A.O. Shirley Grounds on Saturday 26th March, 2016.
A sizeable crowd supporting both teams were treated to 15 minutes of BVI dominance in the first half, but being unable to make a breakthrough, compounded by the loss of influential midfielder Karl Espley to injury, soon turned into a first half nightmare as Dominica grabbed the game by the throat and scored 4 times, to go into the half time break with a comfortable lead.
In the 20th minute an in swinging corner bounced off the knee of Ryan Dicker to leave Ben Chapman helpless and handed the visitors the opening goal, Kelrick Walters was on hand in the 27th minute to no home the second after Chapman’s initial save saw the ball bounce back of the post. Chad Bertrand scored in the 33rd minute and then Julian Wade scored the first of what was to be a hat trick in the 44th minute.
The second half saw Kelrick Walters score the 5th and then Wade rounded out his hat trick with a delightful chip over the advancing Daniel Barker and a well taken penalty.
“The chip gave me the most satisfaction” noted Wade “It was such a good pass and I enjoyed making the lob”.
Wade also commented that his team had settled down nicely into the game and had grown in confidence.
Head Coach, Shane Marshall, was equally as happy with his team’s performance “it took us a little time to get into the game, but once we were able to play our game, we controlled the match and I’m pleased with the way the guys passed the ball around, created chances and also scored goals”.
BVI Captain, Troy Caesar said that the BVI came out with a game plan, but despite a bright start were unable to recover from conceding the early goal and was sorry that they didn’t live up to the crowds expectations of a more competitive game.
Coach Avondale Williams thought his side looked tired after only one days rest, following the Martinique game “I don’t know what went wrong, the guys played their hearts out, but just looked tired. Losing Espley upset the balance of the team and the substitutions didn’t really work out. Overall it was very frustrating, some decisions didn’t go in our favour, but that’s football”.
