By Barrie Alpha
Weekend United FC sent out an emphatic and ominous message to their veteran rivals across the country with an absolute demolition of the youths from Rawdon Street in a gloriously chaotic and utterly one-sided friendly encounter at the Wellington Community Field in Freetown on Sunday March 21st 2021.
The high-pressing, energetic and ruthless veterans were on a different level to their youthful rivals with second half braces from David Farma, Foday Bangura, aka Body, and Michael Cole after Abu Bakar scored the opener in the first half to inspire a 7-2 home win in a local friendly match at home.
They scored a superb stunner from Abu Bakar in mid first half of the match, which happens to be the only goal in the half. They added another six in the second, and could easily have netted more against a shell-shocked and shambolic Rawdontonians side whose defensive errors were too numerous to recount.
In a dizzyingly madcap opening 10 minutes, Abu Bakar fired Weekend United ahead, which was the only goal in the first half of play, despite both teams came close to score but former Blackpool player, Masinga, was too tough for the lads from Rawdon Street.
A tower header from Foday Bangura, after the break, doubled the lead for host, but Abib Kamara pulled one (2-1) to bring the lads back in the match, after a perfect combination with Sulaiman Sesay in the 53rd minute. That belief lasted for almost five minutes with the hope of the lads to level things ended after the Old foxes went on the rampage and raided the visitors by increasing goal scoring tally, with Michael Cole scoring the brace to take the tally to 4-1 in mid second half of play.
The visitors got another consolation goal from Sulaiman Sesay, which almost raised their hope that they can still bounce back in the game.
Weekend United were not entirely infallible, though, with Rawdontonians’s forward players – inevitably led by Abib Kamara – regularly finding spaces behind to cause problems for the rocky defender, Emmanuel C. Thorli, and test the goalkeeper. Later, another goal from Foday Bangura and a brace from David Farma finally prove that the veterans are experienced, mature and too good for the players of Rawdontonians FC.
Speaking to Night Watch Sports, after the match, the skipper of the Weekend United, David Farma, who scored a brace, said he was very delightful to have his name on the score sheet, noting that their massive thrashing, of the lads, is due to lack of maturity by their opponents.
The former Diamond Stars, FC Kallon and National U-17 player who happen to be a police officer, further stated that he was happy for the win, especially them being a veteran side who trains once in a week to thrash young boys who are training every day.
On his part, Abib Kamara of Rawdontonians expressed disappointment over his squad, blaming their technical officials for underrating their opponents. “Our head Coach failed to turn up for the match. He believes that we can win against our opponents because they are veteran players. We’ve learnt a lesson and we are going to correct our mistakes in subsequent matches,” he said.
“The secret behind our success is the type of training we are doing despite we are training once in a week, because the players are veterans and they are workers and business people who always train during the weekend,” the Head Coach of Weekend United, Sinneh Turay, maintained.
“I am training them like any active players. There are some veterans who are playing for enjoyment, but, as for us, we are playing for results. So I train them like active players who are always desperate to have result in any match we played. I can boast that we can defeat any veteran team that we face in any encounter,” Coach Sinneh Turay remarked.
The acting Coach of Rawdontonians FC, Alie Koroma who happens to be a goalkeeper, blamed the lack of adequate players in the substitute’s bench and the condition of the pitch as the reason for their demolition. “We are disappointed with the goal margin, but we are going back to the drawing board and prepare for our future matches,” he said.