Sport

Big win for Portmore

By AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff Reporter

Tivoli Gardens' Roland Dean (left) moves away from Harbour View's Lovell Palmer during their Wray & Nephew National Premier League clash at the Railway Oval yesterday. Tivoli won 2-1. - Rudolph Brown

CHAMPIONS PORTMORE UNITED yesterday broke through Waterhouse's Alamo at Drewsland, nipping the league leaders seven-game unbeaten home streak 1-0 off Oneil "Chippy" McDonald's 76th minute strike in a miserable afternoon for the Premiership leaders.

Waterhouse's (37) cushion at the top of the Wray and Nephew Premier League kept them ahead of Portmore by a point but Harbour View, who started the afternoon in second place on 34, were overtaken by Portmore and Village sharing 36 apiece.

Harbour View stuck their heads in front at Railway Oval when Fabian Taylor hit home after six minutes but homeboy Christopher Nicholas came off the bench in the 51st to boot in a penalty with his first touch. The injury-plagued national popped up again in the 62nd to secure a 2-1 win for Tivoli, who remain dangerously close in fifth place on 35 points.

Relegation-threatened

At Spanish Town, second round leaders Rivoli continued on their merry way, notching their third 1-0 win in four games, this time against relegation-threatened Seba United. Garfield Reid's late second-half goal kept the leaders out front on 19 second round points, tracked by Village and Portmore moving as a team on 17.

Rivoli's win has them within striking distance midway the league standings on 32 points, only four off second-placed Portmore and Village.

In the afternoon's other Corporate Area games, Constant Spring gave up a last-minute goal, losing 0-1 at home against Invaders, for whom Ricardo Scott netted in the 90th.

At the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex, Jonathan Williams produced the goods for The Junglists with a 78th minute goal in a 1-0 win against Reno, snapping a three-game losing streak for coach Jerome Waite's team.

It was high drama at Drewsland as spectators filed out of the renovated complex where the homesters had racked seven straight wins before coming face-to-face with the league champions.

Coach Harold Thomas sat looking dejected on the bench as fans hurled abuse after abuse, blaming the loss on the coaching staff's decision to plant the league's leading scorer, Kevin Lamey, in midfield for three-quarters of the match.

Starting with Nigerian Uche Chinyere upfront, partnered by Roberto Fletcher, Waterhouse never bothered Shaun Sawyers in goal for the entire first-half. The homesters got their best chance 10 minutes after the break when unmarked Fletcher failed to time a goal-mouth header off Chinyere's measured cross from the left of the box.

Portmore had cranked up the pressure from late in the first-half and were all over Waterhouse after the break, dominating midfield with Winston Griffiths, Tyrone Sawyers and McDonald overwhelming Weston Forrest, Damion Powell and Lamey.

Griffiths split Waterhouse's defence wide open in the 76th when he held up the ball well on the right side of the box before playing into space for McDonald, whose angled shot across goal gave goalie Loxley Reid no chance as he covered his near post.

Coach Thomas called off ineffective Fletcher midway the second-half and Waterhouse suddenly came alive with Lamey, Chinyere and Powell combining to force no less than three saves out of Shawn Sawyers in the final 15 minutes but the champions defended stoutly to thwart the late rally.

Thomas, who had to take a few minutes to compose himself after the game, said Lamey started in midfield because the team was short on manpower.

"We were very short," he explained. "That was one of the options. We had three forwards and we chose to go with that."

However, national Under-23 midfielder Vincent Earle, who spent most of the game on the bench, had come on to replace Fletcher.

The fans weren't amused and were calling for Lamey to be pushed upfront from early in the first-half.

"That's hindsight," Thomas replied. "If a player comes on and plays good for 15 minutes, how do you know he would have played well for an entire game?"

Winning coach Lenny Hyde said his team stayed behind the ball in the first-half before pressing after the break.

"We're the champs wherever we play," he said. "Most of our wins have been on the road. Our focus is now the second round final."

Results

Arnett Gardens 1 Reno 0

Tivoli Gardens 2 Harbour View 1

Village 4 Star Cosmos 2

Rivoli 1 Seba 0

Constant Spring 0 Invaders 1

Waterhouse 0 Portmore 1