by EZRA STUART

TWO BIG GUNS in football, Claytons Kola Tonic Notre Dame and Barbados Defence Force (BDF), fired tame warning shots on reaching
the quarter-finals of the Banks Barbados Football Association (BFA) Knock-Out Cup on Wednesday night.

But both Dames and BDF had to fight all the way to edge Division 1 sides Beverley Hills 2-1 and Weymouth Wales 1-0, respectively, in their third-round encounters at Weymouth "B".

They will now join fellow Premier League clubs, Paradise and Lickin Chicken Silver Sands; Division 1 teams, Eden Stars and St Peter Cosmos and Division 2 sides Dayrell's Road and Belfield in the last eight.

Playing before a large crowd which gathered along the sidelines, it took two magical moments from national captain Norman Forde
to ensure the Dames turn back the challenge of the Ali Rochester-coached New Orleans side.

After a goalless first half, Forde gave the Dames, who had to use former Barbados striker Jerry Alexander in the goalbars, the lead in the 65th minute.

Beverley Hills' goalkeeper Fabian Wickham inexplicably came off his line to collect a long throw-in from Dames' captain John "Nobby" Parris but the ball eluded him and fell into the path of Forde, who hit it into the unprotected goalbars.

But Beverley Hills, watched by their outstanding former Barbados striker Patrick "Pottie" Hewitt, equalised in the 79th minute when Renaldo Seale ran onto a long ball from Lorenzo Joseph and just squeezed it past the advancing Alexander into the nets.

However, Forde, who was just denied the winning goal by a brilliant save from Wickham, showed why he is regarded as the best footballer in the country when he almost tore down the nets with a powerfully struck left-footed volley in the 90th minute.

In the second match, defender Kevin Padmore scored the winning goal in the first half for BDF to knock the Carrington Village-based Wales, who were playing on home turf, out of the competition.

With Kerry Holder sitting out the match through an automatic one-game suspension, BDF used former national goalkeeper Albert Brathwaite between the uprights, while another stalwart Azard Weekes played in midfield.

An unmarked Weekes had an easy chance to make it 2-0 for the BDF when Terry Smith, who joined the programme as a goalkeeper but has been utilised as a winger, floated over a high cross from the right side, but he hit the crossbar.