Paradise FC makes debut in St James FA’s Dennis Barton/Weston King league
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Promoted Division Two champions Paradise FC will make their debut in the St James Football Association’s Dennis Barton/Weston King Division One competition this afternoon, when they take on Marl Road at the UDC field, starting at 3:00pm.
Two games are scheduled for today, after the competition got underway on Monday with three games at the UDC field.
Westgreen will host Irwin FC at Westgreen in a Zone A game.
Meanwhile, Mountain Villa and Salt Spring Roses were winners on Monday, as the league got underway.
Mountain Villa took the early lead in Zone A after beating Abes 2-0 with a double from Romaine Cameron in the 37th and 68th minutes at Wespow Park in Tucker.
At the UDC field, Orlando Headley’s penalty conversion in the 74th minute gave Salt Spring Roses a 1-0 win over Seaview in Zone B.
In the other game played at Bickersteth, Lilliput Rovers and Copperwood drew 1-1 to share the points.
Okeive Lewis’ 27th minute goal gave Lilliput the lead, but Cliston Atkins levelled the scores in the 75th minute when he scored from the penalty spot.
The competition has been partly sponsored by Western Publishers in honour of two Montego Bay football stalwarts, the first president of Seba United football club, Dennis Barton, who was also an executive of the sponsors and Weston King, who coached Seba United to the National Premier League title in 1986, the first rural area team to win the national competition.
King passed away earlier this year.
Member of Parliament for Central St James and CEO/Editor in Chief of Western Publishers, Lloyd B Smith announced at the kick- off on Monday that Western Publishers had put up $1 million in kind through the Western Mirror, while a similar amount will come from his Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
With the withdrawal of Barrett Town, 11 clubs divided into two groups with play a home and away format for the first round, after which the top two clubs on points from each zone will qualify for the semi-finals.
The semi-finals will also be played over two legs with the winners on aggregate advancing to the finals.
