Midweek matchweek action in the Saint Lucia Semi-Professional Football League delivered two tense, decisive fixtures at Gros Islet’s Francis “Baba” Lastic Grounds, shaking up the league standings and keeping the title race tightly contested. Heading into the matchday, Vieux Fort South (VFS) held a narrow advantage at the top of the table, and two-time league champions La Clery were hungry to close the gap in their pursuit of another title.
The first clash of the evening pitted La Clery against Dennery, a fixture that lived up to its hype as a battle between top-half contenders. The game got off to a quick start when 11 minutes in, a foul inside the six-yard box on La Clery’s Alex Deveaux handed the side a penalty. Yanic Noel stepped up to take the spot kick, sending Dennery goalkeeper Anton Richard the wrong direction to open the scoring and put his side ahead early.
Dennery entered the match without key veteran midfielder Kurt Frederick, a loss that many expected would derail their momentum. But the side refused to let the absence of their star player define their performance, pushing forward consistently for an equalizer. That breakthrough came just 12 minutes after Noel’s opening goal, when stand-in captain Elijah Joseph finished off a beautifully crafted sequence of tight, precise passing. A lucky deflection off a La Clery defender put the ball right into Joseph’s path, and he made no mistake to level the score at 1-1 heading into halftime. At the break, both head coaches Zaine Pierre of La Clery and Sabbatus Hunte of Dennery had every reason to be satisfied with their sides’ first-half efforts.
The deadlock held for more than half an hour into the second half, until a moment of individual brilliance and clinical finishing broke the tie in the 78th minute. Winger Ronham Cooper delivered a pinpoint, looping cross into the penalty area that found Noel unmarked at the near post. The 24-year-old former New Generation FC striker rose to meet the cross with a powerful header, notching his second goal of the match and taking his league-leading total to six goals for the season. In a creative, memorable celebration, Noel pulled a yellow balloon from his sock, inflated it, and raced toward the stands to share the moment with cheering fans. The strike held up as the game-winner, handing La Clery a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
In the late nightcap fixture, table-topping Vieux Fort South faced off against Mabouya Valley, looking to protect their position at the summit of the standings. The first half was a tightly defensive affair, with both sides failing to break through for a goal, leaving the match scoreless at the break. It took until the 61st minute for VFS to find the decisive breakthrough, when forward Shan Alfred slotted home his fifth goal of the campaign to put his side up 1-0.
The lone goal proved enough to secure all three points for the league leaders, despite a rocky, labored performance that saw VFS pushed all the way by the underdog side. For Mabouya Valley, the loss marked their third defeat in five matches this season, leaving them as the only team in the league yet to record a single win.
Following the midweek results, the updated standings keep Vieux Fort South in first place with 14 points accumulated from six matches played. Two-time champions La Clery have closed the gap to just two points, sitting in second place with 12 points from the same number of games. Dennery, despite the loss, remain in third position with 10 points, holding a game in hand that could see them close the gap on the top two. Soufriere sits just behind Dennery in fourth with eight points. At the bottom of the table, Central Castries and Mabouya Valley occupy the ninth and 10th positions respectively, both firmly rooted in the relegation zone as the season progresses.