Denham Town lay down 6-1 hammering in West Kingston derby
Published:Tuesday | March 14, 2023 | 1:19 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
THE DELANO Campbell-coached Denham Town unit maintained its unbeaten streak in the ISSA Tip Friendly Society School Girl Football season, easing past rivals Tivoli, 6-1, at the Tivoli Gardens school ground yesterday.
Denham Town opened their account in the eighth minute with a breakaway that was easily capped off by Kayesha Sibbles’ composed finish. In the 23rd minute, Tivoli were facing a 0-2 deficit as the silky dribbling skills of Richana Barrett proved too much for their defenders, who were left staring at each other.
It is not often that an opponent is congratulated away from their home ground, but the Tivoli faithful were forced to acknowledge the brilliance of Natoya Atkinson, who tormented defenders. In the 30th minute, a rocket of shot served as her opening salvo on an evening where she scored four times.
Atkinson was also on the scoresheet in the 38th, 72nd and 78th minutes. On each of those occasions, the eventual goal came after mazy dribbles that left her markers chasing shadows.
Tivoli, who repeatedly created chances, earned a consolation goal in the 55th minute thanks to an individual moment of magic from Sarah Haughton.
Head coach of Tivoli, Kevin McDermott said that while not being totally disappointed with the 6-1 scoreline, he believes his charges could get better by falling in love with the game of football.
“They’ve not been training, but they did their best. I have four players who are playing football for the first time, so I’m not too disappointed and it’s a work in progress. We have to work on more shooting in training, most of the girls aren’t really keen on training, they prefer to play, but as soon as I can get them loving the game, then we’ll see better results,” he said.
Campbell, on the other hand, said the prospect of a derby was enough to get the girls in the right frame of mind.
“It’s a derby game so the result is very pleasing for us but we have a lot of work that we need to do. Given the occasion and who we were playing against, we knew the Tivoli team isn’t the stronger opponent, so we wanted to play better football. Most of the girls are first-timers, so I can’t be more pleased to remain unbeaten with Camperdown left to play,” Campbell.
According to Campbell, the versatility of Campbell is his team’s trump card, saying she is able to play multiple positions, allowing him to utilise her differently depending on the opponent.
“She’s a very big morale boost. Sometimes she does a little too much because sometimes she’s in the defence, then midfield and then the striker role. We pick the games that we want her to play specific roles and of course, she does that very well,” said Campbell.