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Knights and Arsenal fail to make the cut

Knights skipper Coolridge Durham was left to rue a season of what might have been after his team joined Arsenal as the two teams not to make the play-offs of the Island Soccer League (ISL).

The 2007 regular season champions lost two games in consecutive days to fall to the bottom of their group, which was deadlocked heading into the weekend, with all four sides locked on six points.

Defeats to eventual group toppers Storm and Titans enabled Apex to leapfrog Knights for the final spot in the East Division.

With the rest of the summer to think about how their season went wrong, Durham said his side only have themselves to blame for their inability to put their chances away.

"It was a good game of football, and mistakes will get punished and everyone saw that today," said Durham.

"We made the mistakes, both defensively and offensively and were made to pay for them.

"I was a bit uneasy before the game as we have had some in-house changes in the past few weeks.

"We have also had some trials like any other team in the league, but it was unlike us.

"It was difficult for not only myself but the coaching staff as well to address our situations properly and get another game plan together on such a short notice.

"As you can see from the roster we showcased this evening, it isn't our original line-up from the start of the season so it was a lot of adjustments we had to make in a short period of time.

"To be fair to ourselves, we had a good bit of chances to win the match.

"We didn't grasp what was given so here we are on the outside looking in. I'm still a Knight so I won't be cheering for anyone else, but a proud spectator.

"For some when their side gets knocked out of tournaments, they go to what many call off-season, but I will be back in training and looking forward to next year."

With the Knights being knocked out on the final game of the regular season, the schedule is now set for what looks to be two mouth-watering quarter-finals games.

West Division runner-up and defending champions Kings playing against East Division third place team Apex, while the Titans, runners-up in the East, will square off against the Royal.

West Division and regular season champions the Union, along with the East Division winners the Storm, have earned themselves byes to the semi-finals.

The East and West starters have been announced for the All-Star game being held July 26 at the National Sports Centre (NSC).

East (blue)-G -Ricky Tucker, D - David Signor, Coolidge Durham, M- Jason Davis, Vernon Tankard, S - Antoine Russell, Vincent Minors

West (red)-G - Jason Smith, D - Shannon Burgess, Kijuan Franks, M - Chris Furbert, Jemieko Jennings,S - Rohaan Simons, Dwyia Blyden