Log In

Reset Password
BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

Match abandoned after Rangers brawl

Rangers coach Jomar Wilkinson

Somerset Trojans and Southampton Rangers were engaged in a tense relegation battle before ugly scenes caused the match at Somerset Cricket Club to be abandoned.

Rangers had been leading 1-0 courtesy of second-half spot kick scored by Kamali Davis.

The visiting side were awarded a penalty in the 65th minute after a Trojans defender handled the ball inside the penalty area after a shot by Davis. However, the game was unbelievably held up as the Rangers’ players began to deliberate about who would take the penalty. The deliberations took close to ten minutes, and at one point, it seemed that Shaquille Bean, the Rangers’ goalkeeper and a former Somerset Trojans’ player, would be the candidate to take the spot kick.

However, when the deliberations ended, it was actually Davis, who took on the penalty duties. He scored the spot kick, calmly placing the ball to the right of Dequan Crockwell’s goal. However, the events that followed Davis’s goal were even stranger than those that had preceded it. Immediately after Davis scored, he was substituted by coach Jomar Wilkinson and then, while he was making his way to the bench, became involved in a dispute that soon resulted in a large fight breaking out between several of the Rangers players.

Attempts were made to diffuse the situation and to resume the game, but they proved to be unsuccessful. Ultimately, referee Tashun Simons decided that it was best to abandon the match. Davis was also shown a red card.

After the skirmish, Jomar Wilkinson, the Rangers coach, was taken away by police for medical attention.

Before Rangers’ penalty and the mêlée that followed, the game had been a close affair, with both teams squandering a hatful of scoring chances. Forwards Leo Burgess and Jaz Ratteray-Smith had missed some great chances to give the home side the lead in the first half.

Damon Ming and Quadir Maynard had also passed up some great opportunities for the visiting side in the opening stanza. In the second half, the Trojans’ should have gone in front, when Jeze Butterfield was gifted a glorious chance but he failed to capitalise on his opportunity.

In spite of the wealth of attacking options on display and the number of chances that were afforded to both teams, the game remained scoreless, going in to the second half. It took Davis’s 65th-minute penalty to break the deadlock.

Davis’s spot kick should have breathed life into a game that was appearing to flat line, but instead his spot kick and, especially, the events that proceeded it, soon led to the premature conclusion of the relegation “six-pointer”.

However, before Rangers could even begin to celebrate their goal, the match was soon being brought to an early end because of the ugly incidents ensued.