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Masters And Skillz Share The Points In Late Season 4-4 Burner

By Colin Benjamin, 10/02/16, 11:30PM EDT

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A spirited comeback from Masters FA turned a potentially one-sided contest into an exciting 4-4 draw with Toronto Skillz FC in Masters final home game of the season at L'Amoroux stadium.

After Toronto Skillz winger Mario Ramalho (17', 21', 35') had produced an excellent solo run to complete his hat-trick and put the visitors up 3-1 - despite Tyrell Rayne's (26') strike - Masters were fully on the back foot.

However Rayne (40') scored his second to guide the hosts into the break 3-2 behind.

And again, despite player coach and former Trinidad & Tobago international Leslie Fitzpatrick scoring what looked like the winning goal (69') for the visitors, a clear combination of weak defending from Skillz, and strikes from Masters' Yasin Shahwan (66') and Allando Matheson (92') in what proved to be the final action moment of the match, a draw was finally secured by Masters.

"The story of the season has been a true learning experience for us regarding the quality we need to compete and challenge in the league," said Toronto Skillz FC head coach, Leslie Fitzpatrick. 

"We have seen in certain positions with specific players that we have players up there with best in league, while in other positions, especially defensively we are deficient and for sure we have to upgrade on our defensive options," he continued.

"Tonight's performance was probably the best reflection of the season. In attack we are very dangerous with some young talent that can get in behind you and play some exciting football - but defensively we are not very disciplined."

"Of course the guys are young and are susceptible to mistakes and the disappointing thing is after 20 odd games this season those defensive errors keep being replicated. When you score four goals you shouldn't lose, but credit to Masters they never gave up and in the end it was a pretty entertaining game for the spectators," concluded Fitzpatrick. 

Masters FA technical director Junior Groves, although he wasn't totally happy, was pleased that the team for the final home game kept fighting until the end.

"When we went behind I reflected back at previous games when we started badly and never recovered, so that's a positive in the end that they were able to come back," noted Groves.

"If you notice when we caught up, they guys eased up and Skillz scored - it's a repetitive psychological thing that has been happening all season." 

"I told the players after the game to all reflect on good team and individual moments for this game and use it to put together a complete performance when we go to Aurora on Wednesday."