Sunday’s Barbados Football Association Premier League matchday went down in the history books not just for a mind-blowing collective total of 32 goals across three fixtures, but for a dramatic late winner that has put defending champions Weymouth Wales firmly in the driver’s seat for another league crown.
On a night where two early games delivered a staggering 31 goals, it was Kemar Headley’s 91st-minute strike that emerged as the most consequential of the day. Facing off against a stubborn UWI Blackbirds side in the evening’s main fixture at the Wildey AstroTurf, the table-topping Weymouth Wales struggled to break through a compact defense for 90 minutes, continuing a season-long trend of dropped points against lower-ranked opposition that has kept their title race far tighter than many expected. The UWI Blackbirds even had a golden opportunity to snatch all three points themselves in the second half, but Rojae Collins sent his shot wide of the post, letting the defending champions off the hook.
For the fourth match in a row, Weymouth Wales needed a late goal to secure victory, and Headley stepped up when it mattered most. The versatile senior star reacted fastest to a loose ball from a late free kick, slotting home the winner to spark wild celebrations among the Weymouth Wales camp. The 1-0 result pushed the defending champions to 37 points, opening up a four-point lead over second-place Paradise, who hold one game in hand on the leaders. Third-place Kickstart Rush sit on 33 points having played one more match than Paradise, while Brittons Hill United round out the top four on 32 points, setting up a tense four-way fight for the title that will go down to the final two rounds of fixtures.
A delighted Weymouth Wales head coach Asquith Howell praised his side’s ability to grind out a result against a tough opponent, and warned that his squad will need to keep fighting to the final whistle to retain their crown. “It will go down to the wire and we just keep telling the players that we have to push if we want to win another championship and we want to play in the CFU Club Championship again,” Howell told reporters. He reserved special praise for match-winner Headley, who has stepped up all season to play multiple positions for the club, from center back to right back, before being pushed into an attacking role for the decisive fixture. “Kemar is a senior player in this team. This season we asked him to play several positions, but he went forward today in an attacking role and he came through for Wales. He’s phenomenal especially when representing Wales, and he loves to win,” Howell added.
The drama of the late winner almost overshadowed one of the most incredible goal-scoring displays ever seen in any top-flight football league. In the day’s opening fixture, Kickstart Rush recorded the biggest winning margin in Barbados Premier League history with a 23-0 demolition of already relegated St Andrew Lions, who played the entire match three players short after a series of late absences. The already outmatched Lions conceded 10 goals before halftime, with another 13 added in the second half as the Kickstart Rush attack ran riot.
National under-17 prospect Jamarco Johnson led the rout with an eight-goal haul, announcing himself as one of the country’s most promising young talents with a clinical performance against the struggling Lions. Romario Drakes added four goals of his own, while Jadon Cave, Trekyle Alleyne-Callender and Ethan Squires each scored twice. Nathan Skeete, Carl Hinkson, Caleb Went and Je-Dane Griffith also found the back of the net, with one additional goal coming from a St Andrew Lions own goal. Kickstart Rush head coach Renaldo Gilkes said his side stayed focused despite the lopsided matchup, as they target a second top-three finish in three seasons and remain in the hunt for a shock title win.
“Yeah, it was a record breaking evening for the fellas, I mean, who doesn’t like to score goals, right? We’re going to try to take this title challenge all the way down to the final day and we have two more games left against formidable opponents in Wales and Paradise,” Gilkes said. “We intend to go back to the training ground, focus on some details and will definitely give it our best going into the final days.”
In the day’s second fixture, last year’s runners-up Brittons Hill kept their title hopes alive with an 8-0 thrashing of another already relegated side Wotton, led by a seven-goal masterclass from St Vincent and the Grenadines international Kirtney Franklin. T’shane Lorde added the only other goal for Brittons Hill, and the result pushed Franklin to the top of the league’s goal-scoring charts with 18 goals for the season. Brittons Hill manager Fabian Wharton said his side will focus only on winning their remaining two fixtures against Paradise and Ellerton, and let the results fall as they may in the tight title race.
“It’s very tight among the four of us at the top, so we just have to do what we have to do and then see how it goes,” Wharton said. Premier League action continues on Tuesday, with second-place Paradise facing off against Ellerton, followed by a matchup between Bagatelle and Eyre’s Meat Shop Pride of Gall Hill as the title race enters its final stretch.