Home / Football / Late goal saves North Side, points split with Alliance

Late goal saves North Side, points split with Alliance

George Town SC remains top of the CIFA First Division table after North Side SC shared the points with Alliance FC on 14 January.

In the marquee matchup of the day’s play at the Annex, second-ranked North Side looked to take full points from Alliance. If that happened, they’d be level on point with George Town.  But Alliance had other plans.

A sweet touch from Javier Medina at the top of the 18-yard box to the right of the goal found Nathan Ebanks, who coolly placed it past Timothy Wesley between the pipes for North Side to give Alliance the lead after just three minutes.

Alliance seemed to have surprised North Side with their pace early, as the North Side players showed rust after the long Christmas layoff.

While they enjoyed the lead, defender Vito Welcome went down with a serious leg injury and the ambulance had to be summoned. CaymanSportsBuzz.com understands he broke a bone in his lower leg.

As Alliance continued to frustrate North Side’s ambitions for an equaliser, Quwayne Feron could consider himself luck for not being sent off after a reckless tackle in the 40th. The referee thought a yellow was suffice. His teammate, Ronel Kelly, suffered a similar fate three minutes later.

In added time, talisman Guiton King found himself alone in front of the Alliance goal with only keeper Ryan Ebanks in his way. That was until his shot hit the crossbar.

Alliance held a 1-0 lead at the half. The challenge of holding on for the win became more arduous when Medina got himself sent off after an exchange of words.

North Side was eager not to let the point slip away but were seemingly unable to do anything about it, despite having the man advantage. With 13 minutes to go, Ebanks maintained the lead for Alliance as he pounced forward to take the ball off a North Side attaker.

In the 85th, the Alliance netminder was called upon once more to preserve the lead and rose to the occasion when he made possibly the save of the game to deny a rocket of a shot from 35 yards away. Another big save came courtesy Ebanks moments later.

Down a man and facing three added minutes, Alliance was on the defensive as they tried to take full points. A whistle when King went down inside the 18-yard box set up the potential tying goal. He put it high and to Ebanks’ right, as the keeper could only watch it go into the net. Almost as soon as the ball touched the back of the net, the whistle signaling the end of the match was blown.

With the teams each taking a point, North Side remains in second place with 10 points from six outing, two behind George Town, while Alliance held on to fifth place with seven points from their four games.

See goals below:

 

In other First Division action:

Academy SC 2, East End United 4

Scorers:

Academy – Jevon Forbes (64 min)

Academy – Renardo Plumber (76 min)

East End – Andrew Browning (11 min)

East End – Arman McLaughlin (56 min)

East End – Umroy Williams (73 min)

East End – Sean Ebanks (83 min)

 

Future SC 5, Elite SC 2

Scorers:

Future – Jessus Ebanks (22 min)

Future – Courtney Duval (27 min, 38 min)

Future – Mark Ebanks (45 min)

Future – Michael Johnson (60 min)

Elite – Shakur Silburn (33 min)

lite – Christopher Welcome (63 min)

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