Petersfield FC win sixth WFA Major League title
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Petersfield FC won the recent Westmoreland Football Association/Victor Lowe Major League Trophy for the sixth time with a 3-0 win against new-comers 12 Street Sports Club at the Llandilo Sports Complex to end the season unbeaten.
12 Street SC played one player short for about 75 minutes after goalkeeper Tavon Watson was sent off for handing the ball outside the 18 yards box, tipping the balance in favour of Petersfield.
It was a scrappy affair with Petersfield players shown five yellow cards, but two goals from Romario Whyte and another from Oshawn Oneil led them to the win and a place in the JFF Tier Two qualifier next season.
Neil opened the scoring in the seventh minute but Petersfield had to wait until the 63rd minute when Whyte scored the first of his brace and put the icing on the cake with a third goal in the 78th minute.
Head Coach Keble Patrick, who started as a player/assistant coach over 20 years ago, expressed his joy at rhe win and expressed that he is remaining focused as there is much more to achieve.
“It feels very good, but we want to make a mark in the [Jamaica Football Federation’s] Tier 2 competition and then hopefully reach the National Premiere League,” he expressed.
“If we don’t achieve this, then winning this competition would not be as joyful. We consider the WFA/Victor Lowe Major League a stepping stone that can hopefully propel us to achieve more,” he added.
He added that this has been the most focused group of players that he has worked with in years.
“I believe they have all the right characteristics that can bring them success to achieve this goal. Making it to Tier 2 and pushing further on,” Patrick expressed.
Donovan Brown, head coach of 12 Street Sports Club told OBSERVER ONLINE that he is proud of the team for achieving such a feat to make it to the finals of the WFA/Victor Lowe Major League competition, considering that they have mostly Under-19 youth players going up against adults who are 25 years and older.
Notably, 12 Street Sports Club is also one of the newest clubs on the block, being less than two years old.
“Although we are an inexperienced team,” Brown explained, “We did well leading up to the finals, winning four games out of six, with one draw and one loss. I thought we had a fair chance to win. The break down happened when the goal keeper made that mistake, which I think was caused from lack of concentration,” he said.
“I think what we have to do now is try and keep the unit together, the technical staff and management team. And get the team to enter more organised competition for the players to gain experience.”
“I want to say thanks to the community of 12 Street and Savanna la Mar who came out and made us feel like football is back in Westmoreland,” he concluded.
“People really enjoyed the competition. Despite losing, we still had a good evening free from all incidents. That’s what we want back in the town. It’s a good start for us to improve on in terms of the football coming back to Westmoreland,” Brown continued.
Individual awards were received by Oshawn Neil of Petersfield FC, for Best Forward; Orlando Barnes of Petersfield FC, Best Defender; Christian Gayle of Petersfield FC, Best Goal Keeper.
Meanwhile, Rushawn Graham of Tuscanny FC was awarded leading goal scorer racking up nine goals for the tournament, and Jahmaro Hall of 12 Street SC won the title of Most Valuable Player.