Village United FC

Sunday September 11th, 2011 is a day that will be remembered by Village United Football Club as the date they played their first 2011 National Premier League home game in the Trelawny Multi-purpose stadium, the under utilized facility that was built to host warm-up games and the opening ceremony of the 2007 cricket World Cup.

Village vs Arnett Gardens in the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium

The turnout was better than the numbers normally seen at the old venue, the Elleston Wakeland Sports Complex in Falmouth, but still looked small due to the size of the stadium. This extra turnout was expected as many people from outside Falmouth are not comfortable with the proximity of Elleston Wakeland to Compound (Village), a community that is known to have flared up in the past. On one such occasion during a Cornwall College football match, my friend P. Brown left the complex bleeding from a wound to the head from a missile thrown from compound onto the main stand, during an altercation between the community and some Cornwall College supporters. Let’s hope that this move to the Trelawny stadium encourages P.Brown and others to come to the Village games.

The match day was marred by an unfortunate incident that put a big dent on the occasion. Thief or thieves broke into the Arnett Gardens dressing room and stole cellphones, jewellery, cash and other valuables, causing the second half to be delayed. Arnett Gardens initially claimed missing 20 Blackberries.

The game itself was almost not played, as Arnett Gardens suited up with jerseys from last season bearing the logo of then sponsors, Digicel. The telecommunication giants of Jamaica are no longer the sponsors and fortunately for Arnett Gardens, they got late clearance to play the game.

On the field, Village squandered numerous first half chances, including two in the six yard box that left spectators wondering how they did not score. These came back to haunt Village as Arnett Gardens capitalized on Village’s sloppy defensive work to score two quick first half goal.

The first saw the Arnet Gardens forward beating the offside trap and with the Village defender trailing, slotted past the advancing Village United FC goalkeeper. The second goal was scored a few minutes later from a corner which saw the Arnett player out-jumping the Village defenders to nod into the goal.

Village showed good character in fighting back and controlled the last 15 minutes of the first half, launching relentless attacks on Arnett’s goal and were rewarded when Dino Williams scored a powerhouse to bring the score to 2-1 Arnett Gardens. The score remained at that until the end of the game, even though Village dominated possession in the second half and had two good scoring opportunities from substitute Teafore Bennett.

The loss aside, the venue provided comfortable seating and is a positive move on the part of Dane Thomas, Jeoffery White and the entire Village management. Let’s hope this enables Village FC to grow beyond the confines of Falmouth. To this end, there was a noticeable difference in the Village United team. An unusually high number of the players are from Trelawny and several communities were represented including Falmouth, Bounty Hall, Kraal, Wakefield, Coopers Pen and Clark’s Town. Previously, a high percentage of the team were from St. James and to a lesser extent, St. Ann. This local flavor should give the team more support from the other communities around parish and make it a true Trelawny treasure.

Photos from the Village United FC versus Arnett Gardens game can be seen on Falmouth Photos.