By PAUL ANDRE-WALKER, Staff ReporterHARBOUR VIEW and defending champions Portmore United forgot to take off their kid gloves as the two played to a tame 0-0 draw in their Wray and Nephew National Premier League first leg semi-final match at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday.
Portmore squandered at least three clear opportunities before the whistle signalled an end to the first half. The ball bounced in the middle of the park favourably for the Portmore team and the early exchanges went to them.
Harbour View custodian Leeroy Gray had a terrible time of holding on to the ball and on at least two occasions he should have paid but Portmore's Dave Clarke, while proving to be a handful for the Harbour View defenders, failed to get the ball on target.
Defensive H'View
The ploy of the Harbour View team seemed to be to defend and try to get good counter-attacks going through the pace of Sean Fraser, Nicholas McCreath, Luton Shelton and Robert Scarlett.
That plan never panned out as Portmore held their shape well even when pinning Harbour View deep in their own half, never allowing the Stars of the East the freedom of quick counters.
The tight play of Portmore also meant play in the middle of the park was less than pretty. However, the touch of Winston Griffiths and Damion Williams was something to be admired with both players creating space in the middle of the park where none had existed throughout the game.
Harbour View coach, Donovan Hayles admitted his team could have done better.
"Definitely, Portmore won the game on ball possession and penetration. However, we defended well and we can thank our lucky stars Portmore didn't capitalise on those chances they had in the first-half.
"We knew we weren't going to win this game because our ball-handlers, Jermaine Hue and Daniel Shaw, were missing. Shaw only managed to play the second half and he wasn't at a hundred per cent. Since we knew this, we tried to use runners to get at Portmore but that didn't work out too well," he said.
Do-or-die
"Sunday's game is a do-or-die situation so we will definiteley be coming to play a different kind of ball game," Hayles added.
Portmore United coach Lenworth Hyde was pleased with certain aspects of his team's play.
"I'm disappointed with the performance but I was pleased with the possession and the creation of opportunities. If we had put away those opportunities the game could have been over early," he said.
