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With attacking forces Rishad Griffith (7) and Jerrel Britto (10) out on one-game suspensions for yellow cards in successive matches, QRC failed to show the punch up front to overturn a Trinity goal.  The loss effectively ends QRC’s league championship ambitions in the 2008 season.

As if to emphasise the point, Mucurapo trounced St. Anthony’s by four goals to nil pulling out of QRC’s range, and indicating clearly that they have no interest in relaxing on their way to the title.

On the same match day, Malick and St. Mary’s battled to a nil-nil draw.

The league title and Big Five spot out of reach, QRC now needs to focus on wrapping up its last two games handily.  We then need to turn our attention to the knockout competition paying special attention to the fact that cellar placed teams have given us the most trouble to date.  Our only losses have come by narrow margin – one-nil in both cases – from the schools at clear risk of relegation.

QRC next faces St. Anthony’s at their Westmoorings ground on Wednesday.  Not only would the Tigers still be smarting from their Mucurapo encounter, they will be looking for points to pull themselves clear of Malick and Trinity.  The Royalians can ill afford to relax on this match day.

Reports coming in confirm that Fatima defeated St. Anthony’s by a goal to nil off a Kevon Durham strike in the 43rd minute.  For the second time though, a game was not played at Moka as match officials failed to show.  The first was an already re-scheduled encounter versus St. Anthony’s, and now their home game against top of the table Mucurapo will have to be played at a later date.

The results see Fatima climb closer to their neighbours’ point tally, and they are now just two behind but with fewer games left to be played – two to Mucurapo’s three.

CIC’s draw at QRC yesterday puts them out of title contention as they can no longer catch Mucurapo’s point total.  QRC remains with a chance of taking zonal silverware, but will still require assistance from other teams to slow the march of the Mucurapo Road schools.

Seven points adrift of Mucurapo, QRC must win all of their final three matches – at home to Trinity on Monday, and away to St. Anthony’s on Wednesday and Fatima on Saturday – to take our point tally to the maximum available 23.  QRC will also then need the following match scenarios to secure the championship:

• Mucurapo can earn no more than three more points in the rescheduled match against Trinity, and in matches Monday and Wednesday against St. Anthony’s and Fatima.
  • Mucurapo can draw with Trinity, but can then do no better than draw against St. Anthony’s and Fatima, taking their total to 23.  In this scenario, QRC needs a goal deluge against Trinity to catch Mucurapo on goal difference.
  • Should Mucurapo defeat Trinity at Moka, then Compre must lose to both St. Anthony’s and Fatima, which again puts them on 23 points.
  • The most favourable scenarios will see Mucurapo lose to all three teams (20 pts), secure only one draw in the three matches (21 pts), or two draws and a loss (22 pts).
• Fatima holds QRC’s title ambitions in the balance, and they must themselves not cross QRC’s available total of 23 points in their two remaining matches.  As indicated above, Fatima must take points from neighbours Mucurapo on Wednesday and QRC must defeat Fatima on Saturday.  This will take their final tally to a maximum of 21 points.

A loss to Trinity in our next match would fairly well put us out of title contention.  We would no longer be able to cross Mucurapo’s current point total of 20.  Further, for Mucurapo to stay on 20, Fatima will have to defeat them taking their own point total to a minimum of 21.

A draw with Trinity still gives QRC a remote chance of taking honours.  However, this will require that Mucurapo lose all their remaining games, and that QRC scorers open the floodgates on opposing teams in order to cross Fatima’s goal difference figure.

Guest commentator Stephen George reports that a different team showed up today, and maybe this was the regular team.  We showed that QRC spirit from the first whistle. It was great to see the guys get fired up for this game.  The band was there and there was a lot of support from Old Boys, the ex-principal William “Bill” Carter (wearing a QRC shirt), and even Mr. Ellis, father for former player Mark Ellis, was there.

Both teams had some chances in the first half, the game going back and forth.  It was unfortunate for us though that we scored an own goal.  I don’t know if it can compare to those own goals from back in the day from Tuitt and Warwick, but it gave CIC the lead.

We came out with the same fight in the second half, had the better of the exchanges, and eventually got a penalty, which the number 7, Rishad Griffith, converted like a pro.

We played some nice football for the remainder of the game and had a great opportunity in the box, but the QRC player took one touch too many and was dealt a crunching tackle from the CIC defender.  We all thought that this would have been the game winner.

The game ended up 1-1, but the team played with a lot of heart and determination, of note was Griffith, a player who was substituted on Tuesday against Malick.  The Akil Morris, playing in the number 12 shirt, also had a really good game, winning a lot of balls in the midfield.  And of course the skipper number 6, Kareem Richardson, must be mentioned.  His head must be hurting himafter the number of balls he headed out of his defense.  It was a great game and I hope we continue to play like this.

Photos from the game, also provided by Mr. George, follow.

• QRC Pre-Game Huddle
• CIC Pre-Game Prayer?
• Striker Jerrel Britto (10) on the ball
• Rishad Griffith scores a second-half penalty…
• Rishad Griffith (7)

We are still awaiting results from Mucurapo’s encounter with Trinity at Moka, but can report that Fatima beat St. Anthony’s by a goal to nil.  Full analysis of the day’s results and QRC’s championship standing after this match day will be posted subsequently.

Much is at stake in this matchup at the Hayes Street ground.

St. Mary’s (12 pts) will be seeking full points to put some distance between themselves and St. Anthony’s (9 pts) who have a rescheduled match versus Trinity this afternoon.  They will also be looking to overturn an embarassing 4-1 loss on their home ground when QRC visited on September 13th.  A CIC win will see them pass third-placed QRC (13 pts) and take their tally to fifteen.

The Royalian outfit need though to rebound from the unlikely loss to cellar-placed Malick to maintain the title chase.  Both Fatima (15 pts) and Mucurapo (20 pts) have just three more games ahead of them to QRC’s four.  QRC needs to win all their last four matches – hosting CIC and Trinity and away to St. Anthony’s and Fatima – both to pass Fatima’s total and to stave off all competition behind them.

Mucurapo though will have to drop at least four points in their last three – away to Trinity, St. Anthony’s and Fatima – for QRC to have any chance at the league title.  Four points dropped will mean that QRC has much to make up in goal difference to pass Mucurapo’s current tally of 18.  QRC’s goal difference figure is currently four.

Should Mucurapo drop five points, QRC can pass their tally, but again only if we win all of the last four games.

The Mucurapo scenario is plausible.  Mucurapo has gone down 3-2 in the first round to CIC in their lone loss to date.  St. Anthony’s not only plays a fast-paced game similar  to CIC, but they will be playing at home and for pride.  And the Fatima game will be a grudge match, Fatima looking to make up for the mistakes that saw them fighting to come from behind in a losing effort.  Both matches can end up draws, or both sides can hand Mucurapo their second and possibly third league losses.  Trinity is not to be disregarded

QRC’s first step though will be to bounce back from the Malick loss and pummel CIC in similar manner on Saturday to the first round 4-1 win.