Waterhouse puts on clinic against Phoenix

The Phoenix Academy Alumni All Stars were made to look very average in their 3-0 defeat to Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) leaders, Waterhouse FC in their highly anticipated friendly match at the Drewsland Stadium on Sunday. As such, Phoenix founder, Craig Butler opted not to comment on the match.

However, coach for the night, Bayer Leverkusen star and Phoenix Academy poster boy, Leon Bailey, instead chose to focus on the charity aspect of the football match in which Phoenix, in association with Waterhouse Football Club, donated $700,000 to the Jamaica Cancer Society/Children living with cancer charity.

"This is our way of giving back to Jamaica, because a lot of people have it hard, and you can always do something to help. But we are trying to do what we can do to help some persons have a better life," Bailey said.

However, Butler has boasted publicly that Phoenix's players' ability and team philosophy is second to none locally, and has even challenged the national senior men's football team to friendly game to prove this point.

Despite showing good ball handling skills in midfield against Waterhouse on Sunday, the Phoenix team found it very difficult to break down a tough Waterhouse defence and were three goals down by the half-time break.

Waterhouse coach, Marcel Gayle thought the visitors were competitive throughout and brought the best out of his team, although a number of first team players sat out the game. Phoenix had their more renown players such as Kemar Reid, Kevaughn Atkinson, Travis Blagrove, Martin Davis, Amoy Brown and Kyle Butler in their line-up.

"It was a good exposure for the young players. But it's about giving back to charity and it was for a worthy cause," he said.

"But they (Phoenix) were very competitive. I believe they brought the best out of Waterhouse today. They have good quality players like Kyle Butler, Amoy Brown and a few others. I just think were had a bit more and we played a bit more organised and that made the difference," he said.

He also endorsed the charity incentive. "I lost my father through cancer and I heard Craig (Butler) has been diagnosed with it, so this was a good venture. Plus, I never expected this crowd but the spectators enjoyed this as it was a good game. So it was a good evening overall," he stated.

Girvon Brown fired the hosts into the lead after just six minutes, thanks to good work from Stephen Williams. Midway the half, Andre Fletcher made it 2-0 when he broke lose and fired past Tyrone Williams. Then, late in the half, Fletcher curled in a superb free-kick to make it 3-0 before the break. After the interval, Waterhouse sat deep and waited for the counter, and even then, Phoenix failed to really bother them, despite some flashes of individual brilliance.