Defending champions of the Barbados Football Association (BFA) Premier League Weymouth Wales returned to a familiar position in the league.
After trailing the University of the West Indies (UWI) Blackbirds for most of the season, the “green machine” defeated the Cave Hill representatives 3-0 last Sunday at the BFA Wildey Turf to claim top spot.
The result ended UWI’s 11-game unbeaten streak, which included a first-round defeat of Wales.
Wales made their intentions clear from very early. National midfielder Ackeel Applewhaite got on the wrong side of his marker and was picked out perfectly by playmaker Romario Harewood.
Applewhaite stepped inside one defender and passed the ball into the bottom right-hand corner, beyond the outstretched right hand of Shaquan Phillips, in the 4th minute.
It was an evenly contested encounter for most of the first half, but Wales created some daylight in the scoreline when Andre Applewhaite scored from Ackeel Applewhaite’s left footed, in-swinging corner in the 25th minute.
Substitute Jante James scored in his second successive match in the 89th minute, with a cheeky lob over the advancing Phillips, to seal the 3-0 victory over the Blackbirds.
In the opening match of the evening, Paradise FC’s captain Armando “Sugar” Lashley led from the front with his first hat-trick of the season.
Lashley’s three goals earned Paradise a 3-1 victory over relegation threatened Empire SC.
Empire took the lead in the 3rd minute when Vincentian international Ozim Henderson reacted quickest to a rebound, when the ball struck the crossbar from Durwayne Peters curling effort from the left side of the pitch.
Just on the stroke of halftime Paradise drew level. Lashley received a cross from the left, took out Peters with his first touch and blasted the ball beyond goalkeeper Jerome Blackman.
Lashley would convert in the 76th and 86th minutes to earn secure three valuable points for the Dover lads, as they move onto 21 points from 12 matches, while Empire remain in the dungeon of the table with eight points from a similar number of matches.
