Western Bureau:
TIVOLI GARDENS MIDFIELDER Fabian 'Fabulous' Davis just relishes Jarrett Park. The national midfielder yesterday scored a spectacular effort in the 43rd minute to hand his team a 1-0 lead over Village United in the first leg of their Wray and Nephew National Premier League semi-final tie.
Davis was scoring his fifth goal in his last three outings at Jarrett Park.
"There is no magic about it," he told STAR Sports after his volley lifted the League Cup winners past Village.
"It is just coming out here and working hard with the support from my teammates and we have been doing it all season so it is for us to stay focused and keep doing what we have been doing, which is give 110 per cent each day."
Davis, who was hardly seen in Village's half for most of the first half, said he was playing to instructions from coach Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey, which was to help out the back four but when the situation presented itself, come forward in attack.
Village had the lion's share of the chances created but were let down badly by their finishing and wasted a number of good chances in the second half.
Poor finishing
Coach Lloyd Williams cut straight to the root of the problem in his post match interview, blaming his forwards for not delivering the goods.
Between yesterday and Sunday's return leg Williams said he would be looking at the forward line to see how best he could come up with a winning formula.
"If we don't score these goals we are not going to win the competition," he said pointedly and defended his decision to leave the impressive Abidun Adeyemi and Fabian Dawkins on the bench until late in the game.
"Abidun was just coming back from an injury and we did not want to risk him coming in too early and Fabian has been having a bad season when he starts but I think the timing was right when they came in as that was when we created the chances but did not make use of them."
Bailey warned that his team could play better and said he had to tell his young team at the second half to relax and play their kind of football.
"The longer we can prevent Village from scoring then we would get into our rhythm more and more. Come Sunday we hope to play a better ball game because I don't think we played our best and if we cannot play to our best and come away with a victory then that must be a good sign," he said.
Village settled quickly with patient build-ups frustrating Tivoli players into picking up three first-half yellow cards as Ian McAnuff took a beating, having to be taken off the field twice.
First chance
Daniel Ricketts had the first real chance of the game in the 12th minute when he got a chance to dribble down the left but forced his shot, sending the ball over the top of the goal.
Tivoli's first chance did not come till the 31st when Steve Green's shot from the edge of the Village penalty box, was deflected for a corner, just missing the goal post.
After playing deep in his own half for most of the half, Davis made his presence felt in the Village half when he pulled a magical shot out of a hat. Roland Dean chested a cross from the right flank straight into his path and he made no mistake, rifling the ball past the helpless Hart.
Tivoli looked the more urgent of the two teams at the start for the second half and almost scored again in the 50th minute. Central defender Preston Bernard slipped and allowed Dean to steal a ball and was headed to goal with only Hart to beat but Bernard quickly made up for his mistake with an expert tackle.
Ricketts, who always looked dangerous, seemed headed to the penalty spot on a solo run in the 75th minute but was stopped by a brilliant tackle by Denroy Gordon, who was close to being sent off in the first half for some rash tackles.
The pressure started to show on the Village team as they started making simple mistakes but were still able to create two good scoring chances.
Bennett should have scored in the 85th minute when he was sent clear after a good bit of teamwork from Dawkins and Shane Crawford. With only Crumbie to beat he hit the left upright.
