The Tampa Bay Rowdies picked up a much needed victory over Hartford Athletic on Wednesday night at Trinity Health Stadium, posting a 2-0 result thanks to two own goals from their hosts.
Tampa Bay was once again short-handed for the match, with only five players available on the bench. Center back Aaron Guillen missed his third straight match due to injury. Meanwhile, center back Forrest Lasso made the gameday roster in Hartford after missing the last match but was an unused substitute.
“I think the main goal tonight was getting the three points any way possible to get the confidence back after losing the way we did on the weekend,” said Rowdies Head Coach Nicky Law. “…It’s a good one for everyone tonight. It’s good for the whole team to get the clean sheet and a 2-nil win away from home. It’s still a difficult place to play. When you go anywhere in this league, it’s difficult to pick up points. So when you can, it’s a good night.”
Celebrating his 100th appearance for the Rowdies, midfielder Lewis Hilton helped his side pull ahead of Hartford in the 16th minute. The Englishman launched an ambitious long range effort that flew by keeper Joe Rice and hit the left post. Fortunately for Tampa Bay, the rebound went straight into the back of Rice, sending it right back into Hartford’s goal.
“We were joking that we were disappointed that the referee didn’t give the goal to Lewis,” said Law. “He doesn’t shoot often but he should really. He’s got great technique. He has the ability to strike the ball really well. He took that one well and, as I said to the staff, maybe we earned a little bit of deserved luck just with everything we’ve had to face all year but particularly in the last month.”
The hosts had a shout for an equalizer in the 25th minute that was waived off as offside. Holding the ball a few yards outside of Tampa Bay’s box, Hartford’s Beverly Makangila attempted to slip a pass in for Prince Saydee who was in an offside position. The pass deflected off the leg of Kleemann and rolled to Saydee, but the flag was raised for offside after Saydee fired the ball into the net.
After breathing a sigh of relief, the Rowdies doubled the lead through another own goal less than a minute later. Forward Cal Jennings penetrated from the right edge of the box and placed a shot on frame that was saved by Rice but then put into the goal by a Makangila as he made an attempt to clear the ball away.
Just a few minutes later, Hartford earned their best chance of the night as Elvis Amoh sent a powerful shot from the center of the on goal, forcing Rowdies keeper Connor Sparrow to tip the ball over the bar. Sparrow had two more saves in the second half to secure his 9th clean of the season and Tampa Bay’s first shutout since August 26.
“The message before the game was to get back to being us, which is bringing that effort and being difficult to score against,” said Law. “Conceding 11 goals in the last four games before tonight is not the typical of the Rowdies. It was important we got back to that tonight, and we did.”
With the win, the Rowdies move to second in the Eastern Conference standings again, three points behind Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and one point ahead of third place Charleston Batter. All three sides have three matches left to play in the regular season, with the Rowdies set to host Pittsburgh in their regular season finale on October 7.
“My message today was can we get back to where we were four weeks ago where we had four straight wins,” said Law. That stream came from our work rate and being hard to play against. The guys answered tonight. We did enough in the first half with the two goals and we saw the job through in the second half. The goal at the end of the day was three points and a clean sheet and we got that.”
Next up, the Rowdies return home to host Loudoun United FC on Saturday, September 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Tickets for the match can be purchased by clicking here.
Scoring Summary
TBR – Rice (Own Goal), 16’
TBR – Makangila (Own Goal), 26’
Lineups
TBR: Sparrow, Ekra, Doherty, Kleemann, Antley, Perez (Mkosana, 86′), Hilton (Martinez, 46′), Dennis, LaCava, Jennings (Dalgaard, 72′), Williams
HFD: Rice, McGlynn, Logue, Merrill, Saydee, Lewis, Kibato, Makangila, Torres, Amoh, Lapert
