Serrekunda East defeated ten-man Gunjur 1-0 to win the third-place playoff of the Baby Muhammed Yahya Jammeh Perpetual Zonal Championships on Saturday.

Habibou Koroma netted the winner in the 89th minute when he blasted home from inside the box after a neat work by Abdoulie Sidibeh. Gunjur were reduced to ten men in the 60th minute after Ebrima Bojang was sent off for a horror tackle on the East player. Despite the numerical disparity however, the Gunjur side went ahead to create some scoring chances before the East Side stole the show in the final minutes.

"We are delighted to have finished third," said Serrekunda East coach Alagie Nyassi. "We had the potential to go all the way.  But we lost in the semi-finals against Bakau because we did not perform as expected. But it was still an achievement for Serrekunda East to reach this stage."

Gunjur coach Lamin Jambang said he was satisfied with the overall performance of his team.  "The statistics do not reflect the quality of our play here as we continued to improve with each game. I'm satisfied with our performance at this tournament even though our target was to reach the final," he said.

As third best, Serrekunda East will receive 25 bronze medals and a cash prize of D20,000. The final of the eight-zone tournament will pit arch rivals Banjul and Bakau together on Saturday, January 10, at the Serrekunda East Mini-stadium. The mouth-watering final will be the repeat of last year’s final which Bakau won 1-0.