Latrikunda United Saturday beat Nema United 2-0 at the Serrekunda West Mini-stadium in the preliminary round of the Gambia Football Association FA Cup competition, which began on Saturday.
Latrikunda United opened the scoring through Abdoulie Njie in the 30th minute from a sensible finish to give his side a 1-0 advantage going into the break with something to be optimistic about.
Nema United’s hope of equalising was dashed when they were reduced to ten men in the 76th minute of the game when Modou Gaye was sent off after been shown a straight red card for a deliberate foul on Abdoulie Njie.
Baboucarr Jammeh sealed the victory for Latrikunda United in the 90th minute of the game from a wonderful free-kick.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the game, Mustapha Jammeh, head coach of Latrikunda United, said he was very glad about the win as, according to him, Nema United hammered them in both legs of the second division league.
“We told the players that ‘we cannot lose to Nema United today’ and they fought hard (to win),” he said, adding that the players were motivated and did well during the game.
“Nema United is a team I admire and their head coach Sanna Yaffa is a very good friend of mine; I am therefore sad to see them drop to the third division, but this is football,” coach Jammeh said.
He added: “We were fast on the ball today because Nema United is a team that has strong players.
“We will go back and talk to the players and also work on certain things because there are first division league teams in the competition and I know it will be hard but we will play them, with all due respect to them.”
Yusupha Jarju, assistant coach of Nema United, said he was disappointed with the loss, adding: “This was not what we expected from a team like Nema United, even though we have been relegated to the third division, which actually should not let the morals of the players down.”
He continued: “We should have won this game today looking at the chances we created in the first period of the game but we will go back and put hands together to make sure the team come back to the second division league.
“This is not what we prepared for and not what we wished for the team but we will motivate the players to make them stay so that we can regain promotion to the second division league.”
