The Telekom Super League (TSL) defending champions Solomon Warriors suffered its first defeat of the season to Laugu United over the weekend.
The match was played on Saturday at Lawson Tama Stadium.
Solomon Warriors has been on a flying start since the start of the season in April this year winning eight matches, three draws until a reinforced Laugu United ended Warriors’ unbeaten run last Saturday with a three-star performance.
It was one of the tightly contested clashes of the season which saw both teams equally contesting for a chance to score.
They both shared possessions and more scoring chances in the first half but failed to register a goal by half time.
Both teams regrouped with renewed strength in the second half trying to break the deadlock until Ben Fox of Laugu United found the back of the net in the 54thminutes to give Laugu the much needed lead.
Two minutes later United’s Dickson Magi made a clever run to receive the ball and put it on a plate for George Beti who slipped it past Warrior’s goalkeeper Ronny Sale to double the Laugu United’s lead.
Playing under pressure after the two goals down, Warriors’ defensive errors were costly when Allen Peter lost ball clearance which turned into an united counterattack for Fox to calmly slot the ball home to make it 3 nil against the defending champions.
Warriors claimed their first defeat was due to lack of time to recover, after playing their catch up matches on Wednesdays and then the main match on Saturday.
Additionally, Warriors has lost two of its dangerous attacking players that contribute to the clubs unbeaten run in the past matches with the likes of Gagame Feni, Jaygray Sipakana and others.
Laugu with the win against Solomon Warriors last Saturday gave them the much coveted 3 points to on the third spot with 29 points.
While Real Kakamora is on the second spot also with 29 points but overtaking Laugu with goal difference.
Central Coast FC still maintains the first spot after comfortably beating Waneagu United 3-1 on Sunday.
By FLOYD TERRY JNR
Solomon Star, Honiara
