By Raymond Graham, Freelance WriterSPANISH TOWN:
IT WAS a thriller at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday as home team Rivoli United and Reno played to an exciting 3-3 draw in their Wray & Nephew Premier League encounter.
With just one point separating both teams, Rivoli's home crowd got the shock of their lives as the Westmoreland team scored three goals in the space of 25 minutes.
First, Patrick Graham's curving free kick from 35 yards in the 14th minute beat goalkeeper Allen Whittaker to give his team a 1-0 lead. Carl Brown in the 17th and Kendri Quarrie in the 23rd increased the lead as Reno went into the half-time break with a healthy lead.
Despite being three goals behind, the home team was not unsettled and came out aggressively, putting their opponents under constant pressure.
The pressure paid off in the 66th-minute when Miguel Perrin scored from the penalty spot. For the remainder of the game it was all Rivoli as they continued to pile on the pressure.
With captain Patrick Beech, Marvin Henry and Garfield Reid playing well, Rivoli scored again in the 78th minute as Reid beautifully beat two defenders on the right flank, then squared a ball on to the head of Sean Coleman in the 18-yard box, whose header flew past goalkeeper Aaron Lawrence.
Despite dominating it, Reno got two chances to put the game away but twice Gregory Teape, with the goalkeeper alone to beat, kicked wide of the target.
They paid for this dearly when the talented Reid once again showed his cleverness in the 88th minute. From a free kick just outside the penalty area, Reid kicked the ball over the heads of a wall of defenders and into the right corner of the goal.
Lacklustre performance in St Ann
By Devon Evans, Freelance Writer
BROWN'S TOWN, St. Ann:
LEADERS HARBOUR View could only manage to secure one point in their away National Premier League game against bottom-placed Star Cosmos yesterday as both teams played to a lacklustre 0-0 draw.
The game was played on a muddy and bumpy surface which Harbour View's coach, Donovan Hayles, blamed for his team's poor performance.
The game got off to a good start but players soon found the field difficult to manage. Many good build-ups by both teams were thwarted by players unable to firmly stand their ground and the uneven surface added even more frustration to their efforts.
POOR CONDITIONS
Star Cosmos seemed better able to manage the poor conditions but their shooting accuracy left much to be desired.
Harbour View's Damion Stewart was given his marching orders by referee Orville Sandtroft in the 88 minute for using foul and abusive language, while his teammates, William Rich-ards and Clifton Waugh, received yellow cards in the sixth and 74th minutes respectively.
Speaking in a post-match interview with The Gleaner, a disappointed Hayles said: "There is no need to speak about any technical matters because it wasn't football."
He also questioned the method being used by the Jamaica Football Federation to inspect playfields, saying that grounds in better condition had been rejected while Addison Park was approved by football's governing body.
"The condition was bad and there was no way any good football could have been played on this field," Hayles said.
'DANGEROUS FIELD'
The Harbour View coach described the field as dangerous and said the game should not have been played on it.
However, his counterpart, Lewin Purser, the coach of Star Cosmos, was pleased to hold the leaders to a draw.
"It was a wonderful game and we were just unlucky to miss taking all three points. We outplayed Harbour View but failed to find the back of their net," Purser said.
Purser said the poor condition of the field also affected his team's chances of winning but that he was still happy to collect the one point.
Arnett drub Constant Spring
ARNETT GARDENS turned the corner on their recent poor run of form when they drubbed Constant Spring 3-1 at the Tony Spaulding Sports Club in Wray and Nephew National Premier League action yesterday.
Alex Stewart opened the scoring in the 35th minute while Leon Strickland in the 52nd and Walter Boyd in the 55th did the damage in the second half for the home team. Constant Spring substitute Greg Gardner scored an 87th minute consolation goal to salvage some pride.
Arnett started the game by making numerous inroads into the short-staffed Constant Spring backline. It is quite possible that the many misses were a result of being surprised at creating that many chances. That was until Stewart played a 25-yard pass to Boyd, who returned the favour by passing across the box to Stewart who ran on to smack a well-placed shot into the far corner of the goal.
The second half, though slower, was no less dominated by Arnett and it was only a matter of time before Constant Spring found themselves even further behind. An Arnett corner that was headed back across the face of goal resulted in a goalmouth melee that Strickland was the first to react to.
With the score at 2-0, Arnett went into cruise mode and for a while seemed to allow the Constant Spring team back into the game until Keith Kelly, after almost losing his dribble, poked a ball that found Boyd one on one with an advancing goalkeeper. He coolly chipped the ball over the 'keeper's head and into the back of the goal, to take the score to 3-0.
Arnett's cocksure attitude towards their position in the game led to them leaving substitute Greg Gardner with too much room to bang the ball past Arnett's Allen Reid, who was having his first game between the sticks.
Waterhouse stay alive
FORM-RUNNING Water-house, without top players Baris Johnson and captain Irvino English, kept alive their chances of qualifying for the first end-of-round final in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League with a fortuitous goalless draw against Village United at the Elliston Wakeland Sports Complex yesterday.
"We never played as good as we could play. We're glad for the one point," said Waterhouse's assistant coach Barry Brown.
The draw kept the travelling Drewsland team in second place on 19 points, the same as Portmore United which beat Seba United 2-1 at Jarrett Park.
However, Waterhouse, with a +15 goal difference, are in an advantageous position going into this weekend's last set of first round matches as the Portmore team's goal difference of +9 is far inferior.
Waterhouse will next play Tivoli at Drewsland where they have a 100 per cent win record after whipping Seba United 6-0 and Constant Spring 5-0 this season.
"The result just let everybody bunch-up now and it now leaves us in a position where we'll have to win the game come Saturday against Tivoli," Brown said.
"Tivoli are a good team but we just have to play with a whole heap of character like we've been doing all season. Playing at home always helps, I think that will definitely help. The motivation playing at Drewsland is really an important factor with us playing so well this year," added Brown, whose r ed-hot team stayed unbeaten while winning five of its past seven matches.
As it relates to Village United, the result killed off their hopes of making the End of Round final as the point moved their tally to 16, which place them at fifth four points off leaders Harbour View.
Tivoli trounce Invaders at Railway Oval
By LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter
TIVOLI GARDENS' substitute Christopher Nicholas scored two late second-half goals to help his team trounce Invaders 3-0 in Wray & Nephew National Premier League action at the Railway Oval, Kingston yesterday.
Tivoli are now fourth in the 12-team league and have 18 points.
Their first goal came from a deceptive Christopher Jackson free-kick from 20 yards out in the 42nd minute. Jackson's powerful left-footer curled to the left of Invaders' goalkeeper, Richard McCallum, rattling the back of the net.
Neither team played particularly well but the lack of effective playmaking was more evident with Tivoli because they had more chances to score. The pace slowed extremely in the second half and both teams simply seemed to be going through the motions.
Nicholas' entrance in the game during the second half changed things and in the 86th minute he was on the receiving end of a Steve Green pass, which was set up by Lenworth Hyde Jnr.
Four minutes later, Nicholas scored again, this time from the penalty spot for Tivoli's third goal.
Invader's coach, Cassman Williams, said his midfield was weak and was to be partially blamed for the loss.
"I think we lost the game in the midfield; our midfield players weren't tracking their opponents properly and that created a problem for us," Williams said.
Tivoli's coach, Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey, credited the addition of his new players to yesterday's win.
"What we have now that we didn't have earlier in the season were people coming off the bench - that depth. Most people came in late so we have depth now and when we make the changes they are effective and I think that made the difference today."
"The changes we made in the second half ... Christopher Nicholas scoring those two goals, Steve Green coming in the middle and really giving that punch in the middle," Bailey said.
