Lilliput Rovers, MBU clash in Captain’s Bakery KO
ROSE HALL, St James — ST James Football Association’s Division One club Lilliput Rovers and Premier League side Montego Bay United (MBU) will meet this afternoon in the second round of the Captain’s Bakery and Grill Knockout at Wyndham.
It is a repeat of last year’s first round when Lilliput created the biggest upset of the competition.
Last season, Lilliput had beaten MBU 2-1 to knock them out in the first round and will get another chance to repeat today against arguably the best club team in the island with a white-hot streak in the Red Stripe Premier League.
The clubs were drawn to meet at Monday evening’s draw for the second round held at the offices of the St James Football Association.
In addition to MBU, four Western Confederation Super League clubs also advanced from the first round that ended on Saturday, while former champions Wadadah FC drew a bye to the third round to be played next week. Advancing were: Tomorrow’s People and Catherine Hall who will meet in a mouthwatering clash tomorrow, Granville United and Norwood Strikers.
Two more games will be played today, Norwood Strikers will meet Rosemount Gardens at the UDC field, while Granville takes on Senior League side North Gully Ambassadors at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College.
The second round ends on Saturday with two more games, Reggae Youths vs Revelation at Westpow Park and Seaview taking on the Montego Bay United Under-21 team at the UDC field.
All games are set to start at 3:00 pm.
Lilliput beat Granville City in the first round to book their spot against an MBU team that blasted Barrett Town, for 14 goals in their first-round game.
Additionally, MBU has one of the best defences in the Premier League and Lilliput could have a long, hard day today trying to breach it.
With another crucial second-round Premier league game on Sunday, MBU’s coach Dr Dean Weatherly could opt to rest his starters or use this game as a final preparation before travelling to face Arnett Gardens who are also on the rise.
Norwood Strikers are coming off a massive upset of Reno FC in their Super League game played on Tuesday and — after a first-round win over Copperwood are riding a wave of success after losing their first three Super League games.
Today, they will start favourites to beat Rosemount Gardens in a repeat of the 2010-2011 St James FA Division One finals that Rosemount won.
At Sam Sharpe, Granville who are having a stretch of poor form in the Super League, will hope to continue in the KO when they host a North Gully team that beat Abes Academy in the first round.
Granville had prevailed against Irwin FC but North Gully will present a more formidable opposition today.
Games for today:
Granville vs North Gully Ambassadors at Sam Sharpe TC
Norwood Strikers vs Rosemount Gardens at UDC
Lilliput Rovers vs Montego Bay United at Wyndham