Gleaner lift KO title in penalty shoot-out

The Gleaner Company Limited's football team custodian, Everdean Scarlett, pulled off two brilliant saves in a penalty shoot-out to lift the newspaper company to an exciting 4-3 penalty-kick victory over Scotiabank Group, in the final of the Kingston and St Andrew Football (KSAFA) Business House knockout competition on Thursday at the University of the West Indies Bowl.

Scarlett, who was hailed by his teammates as man of the match, also fired home the first penalty kick for his team. Loxley Thompson, Bernard Blackwood and Fabian Swaby were the other scorers for The Gleaner in the shoot-out.

Both teams had played to a 0-0 draw at full and extra time.

The victory was also a bittersweet one for the men from North Street, who were beaten 2-1 by Scotiabank, a loss which denied The Gleaner a chance of progressing to the league semi-finals.

great performance

"I think that I had a great performance in this game because of the fact that I have been regaining my confidence, which I think I lost in the past two years," said a very delighted Scarlett after the match.

"I wasn't nervous going into the shoot-out, because this is one of my specialities of the game, and I have never lost a penalty shoot-out at this level in my career," said Scarlett, who plies his trade for Cavalier in the KSAFA Super League competition.

Continuing, Scarlett said: "I knew I had the backing of my teammates, and with their support and encouragement I just went out there with a lot of confidence and did the job for them."

Reflecting on his team's performance, Scarlett added: "I thought that this was one of our best games this season because we played to instructions, and this is what enabled us to win this competition."

Scotia's Jermaine Gardener and Richard West had their penalty kicks saved by Scarlett, after their teammates Nicholas McCreath, Norwayne Knight and Damion Gordon had earlier converted from the spot.

Wayne Shaw, manager of Scotia, was disappointed.

"We are very disappointed because this is the third time that we have been in this final and failed to win it," said Shaw.

"However, this is just a part of the game because when you get your chances and fail to put them away, then you are going to end up losing the match," he said.