Tallinding, Milan Earn Vital Points in Fight for Survival

Tallinding United and Bakau Katchikally Milan secured vital three points on Friday in their fight to maintain their status as national top flight teams for another season.

In matches watched by thousands of Gambian spectators under the floodlights at Bakau’s Independence Stadium, Tallinding defeated Waa Banjul 1-0 in the early kickoff before BK Milan also secured a similar scoreline defeat of Gamtel in the late match.

Tallinding, coached by Sana Darboe, let slipped their lead as they suffered a last-gasp equaliser in their most recent fixture but it never looked like history would repeat itself this time when Muhammed ‘Mboma’ Sawaneh smashed in a beautiful 25-yard freekick to give his side the lead in the 76^th minute.

The win has catapulted Tallinding out of the relegation zone for the first time in many weeks to 11^th on the 14-team table with 13 points. Waa Banjul, who would’ve moved to joint third with victory in the encounter remains on sixth place with 21 points.

Elsewhere, on Friday night, BK Milan registered a hard fought 1-0 defeat of Gamtel in a match dominated by the Telecom giants. The turning point in this encounter came just three minutes before the interval when Gamtel was awarded a penalty but goalkeeper Alagie Saho, who was captaining his side, dived to his left to parry away the resulting spot-kick and ensured his side went into the break levelled on goalless.

Gamtel would be made to pay for the penalty miss and their general failure to be ruthless in front of goal as mesmerizing forward Buba Jammeh smashed in a left-footed volley to break the deadlock after some brilliant team play deep into second half.

The win saw Milan moved to ninth place on 15 points, above their victims on goal difference.

Matches continue on Saturday with runaway leaders Fortune first taking to the field in the 8:30pm kickoff against Hawks. The match bears a lot of significant meaning for the Petroleum Boys as former Scorpion striker Momodou ‘Zico’ Ceesay is expected to make his Gambian league comeback after his last match with Banjul Wallidan more than 15 years ago. Zico joined the Farato side this week for the rest of the season.

The late kickoff will see Banjul United entertain The Gambia Ports Authority in a Banjul derby that will kick off at 10:30pm.