BY GEORGE ALLEYNE From Caribbean Life

They were champions last year and just to prove that getting to the top was no fluke, Weymouth Wales emerged out of its zone and won the playoff match to become the Barbados Football Association Premier League champions again.

The Weymouth boys scored twice to beat the Barbados Defence Force 2-1 at the Wildey, St Michael AstroTurf in a thrilling encounter that saw all three of the goals netted in first half of the game, played earlier this month.

The Barbados Premier League format this year saw the island’s 12 top teams being split into two six-team zones, and Wales sailed through Zone One with no losses in their 16 games, winning 14, drawing two and registering 50 goals for, and six against, to earn 44 points.

This meant that when Wales won the playoff match-up of zone winners they completed the Barbados Premier League season unbeaten.

BDF topped Zone Two with 35 points from their 16 games, winning 11, drawing two and losing three with 39 goals for and 10 against.

A delighted Weymouth Wales coach, David Ward, said the victory was owed to “good work from the entire management team. As I said last year, it is like a family and we are still keeping it that way.”

He indicated that the 2017 and 2018 victories were not without major obstacles.

“We always have challenges,” Ward said, adding that on a number occasions the team’s practice ground was used for public events, so many days, “we don’t have any place to train. We have to come out early and sometimes go on the [nearby] field. And our field is very poor. It needs a work-over and that is what we are looking at.”

Nonetheless, he said that the Weymouth boys were undaunted, “we might not be professional, but we have that professionalism within our minds… We constantly work on the mental aspect of the game.”

“This final was a tough fight. But we are always up for that fight and I always tell these men from the sweat of a man’s brow, so shall he eat. We are dedicated, we are determined and we acquired the expected results,” he said.

IMAGE: Photo by George Alleyne