By: The BVIFA
The Vincy Heat skipper, Myron Samuel, rounds Jamal Sergeant during BVIFA 40th anniversary friendly. Photo:BVIFA
The BVI Fooball Association’s 40th Anniversary International Friendly against St Vincent and the Grenadines might not have produced the right result, a 6-0 defeat, but it was certainly the right choice of opponent as hundreds of Fans descended on the A.O. Shirley Ground on Sunday.
The Vincy Heat commanded the early exchanges and threatened the BVI goal on many occasions before finally getting on the score sheet inside the first ten minutes when Myron Samuel spun onto a loose ball in the penalty box and fired home.
Azinho Johnson then doubled the advantage 15 minutes later, appearing unmarked at the far post to head home a pin point cross from Samuel.
Spurred into some attacking life having been camped in their own half, the BVI finally got a shot on target, but Andy Crossley’s effort was straight at the Vincy keeper and Andy Davis just failed to get his boot around a loose ball on the edge of the Vincy box.
The tone of the game was then restored as the Vincy Heat laid siege to the host’s goal, with Jevonne Demming clearing a Samuel free kick and then Daniel Barker alert to another stinging effort from Samuel. Kyle Edwards brought a flying save from Barker and the same player rose unmarked from the resulting corner to narrowly steer his header over the bar.
Another indecisive piece of BVI defending saw Johnson score his second and the Vincy third when Samuel latched onto a scuffed clearance from Jamal Sergeant and with quick feet fed his team mate who made no mistake from close range.
Edwards had a chance to make it four moments later following more panic and a goal mouth scramble, but then Samuel raced onto a through ball, beating the offside trap and slipped a pass into the path of Emerald George who was left with a simple tap in.
Regrouped at half time, the BVI put in a much better second half performance and put some pressure on the visitors. Crossley almost brought the home crowd to its feet dribbling his way goal ward only to be denied at the last second before getting a shot off and Eddie Cupid forced Kenyan Lynch into a flying save to be denied a goal on his Senior team home debut.
The Vincy were also dangerous on the break and were denied time and time again by Barker including one athletic single handed leaping tip over before Edwards scored his second to make it five and Shandel Samuel rounded out the scoring at six after another unselfish pass from skipper Samuel.
“I’m very proud of the team, we have some players out, but the new players came in and we still got the result we wanted. The BVI team played better than the last time I saw them (a 23-0 U20 drubbing), they are improving a lot” commented Samuel.
BVI vice Captain, Jevonne Demming, was philosophical in defeat and quick to thank the huge crowd “it was a good game, but you practice what you preach and we need to work harder. The fans came out to support us as we hoped, but we need to support each other. The Vincy played better ball and held the ball more than we did, but we tried our best”
