By AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff ReporterPORTMORE UNITED COACH Lenny Hyde yesterday bashed his champion side for panicking five minutes from time in a dramatic 1-2 stoppage time loss to Wray and Nephew Premier League leaders Tivoli Gardens.
Goals from second-half substitutes Christopher Nicholas (89th penalty) and Darren Virtue in time-added, moved Tivoli to 64 points and one game closer to the $1m on offer to top the preliminary rounds.
Only Harbour View, who are on 56, are capable of pegging back the leaders but only if Tivoli lose their three remaining games.
"I think it was a lapse of concentration when Tivoli were coming at us," Hyde said, commenting on Tivoli's flying finish after his team led in the 39th minute off Roen Nelson's goal.
"We gave up the last five minutes. We wanted to end the game before the whistle was blown," he added.
The loss cost Portmore second position in the standings, slipping three points to third (53) behind Harbour View, who rallied from a goal down to slam Arnett 3-1 at Compound off second-half strikes from Nicholas McCreath, Christopher Harvey and Luton Shelton.
Relegation coffin
In other metropolitan area games, Rivoli took out Star Cosmos 2-0 at the Spanish Town Prison Oval off Garfield Reid's first-half free-kick and Oparaku's header after the break.
The win against already demoted Star Cosmos moved Rivoli to 50 points with Waterhouse and Village but sixth on goal difference.
At Constant Spring, the hosts drove another nail into Seba's relegation coffin, pinning the former champion to 23 points, next to last in the standings, one less than Invaders, who lost another Trelawny parish derby, going down 0-1 to Village off Daniel Ricketts' goal.
At Railway, angry Tivoli supporters were cranking up to spew venom at an anticipated 1-0 loss when the Oval roared to life a minute from time.
Christopher Jackson's hard cross from the left side of Portmore's box was intercepted by Jermaine Benjamin just inside the box, cheekily extending his right hand before vehemently protesting referee Peter Prendergast's penalty call.
Nicholas, who had replaced Devon Bissick shortly after the break, stepped to the spot and had goalie Shawn Sawyers going to his left, completely mireading the spot kick already lodged into the back of his net.
Scorching grounder
Fired-up by a crowd which was ranting a minute earlier, Tivoli went for the kill in stoppage time. Jackson fired a scorching grounder from the left side of midfield with the partisan crowd urging the ball, which sailed past the base of Sawyers' far post.
With Portmore's defenders resorting to frantic clearances amid the onslaught, Tivoli won a corner, which Reggae Boy Fabian Davis floated in from the right. Tracked by his marker, Nicholas met the cross at the near post with a good header, which Ricardo Smith half-cleared from the goal line but only as far as Virtue's feet and he made no mistake from four yards in the crammed box.
Bailey said his ploy to save his better but injury-prone players for the second-half paid off handsomely.
"We've been playing with a lot of injuries lately and have been looking to the bench but they've not been doing what they're supposed to do so I decided to hold the stronger players for later and it came through," he explained.
Doing a quick calculation, Bailey said Harbour View remain their only threat for a $1m payday but insisted Tivoli's main aim is being on top of their game during the semi-finals.
"Our main focus is to get everybody healthy for the semis," he pointed out. "Even with the million dollars, all that achievement will go through the window if we fail in the semis. Everything starts fresh there."
Results
Harbour View 3 Arnett 1
Reno 1 Waterhouse 1
Rivoli United 2 Star Cosmos 0
Invaders 0 Village United 1
Tivoli Gardens 2 Portmore United 1
Constant Spring 2 Seba United 0
