The journey back form St Andrew would have been a long and bumpy ride for St Michael East on Friday night.
The home side gave their fans reasons to sing and dance, as they did when they trounced St Michael East 4-1 when the David Thompson Memorial Constituency Councils Football Classic continued at Belleplaine.
There was also rejoicing for St James Central after they blitzed neighbours St James North 3-1 in the night’s opening match.
It would have been a very bitter pill to swallow for St Michael East after they completely dominated the home side for the first 45 minutes.
But a superb second half display by St Andrew, spurred on by Jomo Harewood’s brace, completely turned the match on its heels, much to the delight of the huge crowd on hand.
Early on it was all St Michael East, as Malcolm “Buju” Marshall, Troy Dixon and Jameel Stuart kept St Andrew on the defensive.
Stuart should have scored after he got away one on one, but he completely missed his shot allowing goalkeeper Morrison Taylor to collect easily.
Taylor then had to be alert, coming off his line to prevent Stuart from once again running on to a through ball from Dixon.
But against the run of play, St Andrew took the lead in the 27th minute, when Pecos Nurse latched on to a ball inside the penalty area and fired it past St Michael East keeper, Travis Marshall.
Two minutes later the score was level, when Troy Gibson was presented with the easiest of opportunities after Taylor misjudged Marshall’s freekick, leaving Taylor to just nod into an empty net.
It stayed that way up until halftime, with the visitors’ fans voicing their disappointment at their team’s poor showing in front of goal.
Just four minutes after resumption, St Andrew retook the lead again when Raymond Hope slid the ball past the outstretched hands of Travis Marshall after being expertly played through by Dario Carter.
Harewood then put the finishing touches on a spectacular performance when he scored twice in the space of three minutes.
First he outsprinted, then rounded the advancing keeper, and calmly slotted in an open net in the 90th minute, before majestically rising over the defence from a corner to nod home in the 93rd.
Goals from Damion Hoyte in the fifth, Christopher Holmes in the 20th and Stefan Bowen in the 53rd led St James Central to victory. Marc Alleyne scored St James North’s lone goal in the 39th minute.
