By Paul-Andre Walker, Staff ReporterHARBOUR VIEW'S Fabian Taylor returned to magical form when he single-handedly dealt Arnett Gardens a 3-2 defeat in their Wray and Nephew National Premier League clash at the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday.
Taylor struck in the 15th, 48th and 52nd minutes, while Arnett's goals came by way of Kwame Richardson (21st) and Denton Sheddon (43rd).
The win puts the 'Stars of the East' on 34 points, the same as Waterhouse (34) who maintained a competitive position with a 2-1 win over Seba.
Harbour View, however, find themselves first in the league despite Waterhouse's victory, having scored one more goal than the Drewsland-based team.
Pundits, although noting Arnett's less than impressive form, expected this match-up to provide the thrills and they, along with the fans, were not to be disappointed.
In the first five minutes of play the men from the east seemed as if they had come to show Arnett why they were at the top of the league. Arnett soon settled though and managed to sustain some pressure on the Harbour View back line in the first 15 minutes.
That was until Taylor made them pay for poor marking in the box. Harbour View showed lightning pace on a counter down the left side that featured a nifty give-and-go between Jermaine Hue and Robert Scarlett. Scarlett's hard cross from deep in the Arnett half found Taylor running on to glance a header against the inside of the far post.
Arnett went into overdrive and deservedly found an equaliser only minutes later when Jonathan Williams had the presence of mind to lay a pass to his right while he was on his way to goal. Richardson was quicker to the ball than the approaching Harbour View custodian, Leeroy Gray, who was hapless as the ball was tucked underneath his falling frame.
Arnett had the momentum and Harbour View had begun to concede possession in dangerous places. In similar fashion to Arnett's first goal Keith Kelly carried a ball directly towards goal and laid off a pass to Shedden who made no mistake in driving the ball past Gray at his near post.
The second half saw two different teams taking the pitch and one would have assumed that it was Harbour View who were up by a goal rather than the other way around.
Within three minutes, Taylor's deflected shot resulted in a corner that turned up the equaliser. Once again Arnett were found guilty of poor marking and duly punished when Taylor banged home from the set piece without so much as a nudge to put him off.
Taylor was not finished with Arnett yet. Scarlett made space for himself on the left side with a darting run midway the Arnett Garden's half and his long diagonal ball found an unmarked Taylor, who made a picture perfect header over the outstretched arms of Selvin Collins in the Arnett goal to take the lead for good.
"Revenge is too sweet not to avenge," was the jubilant response of Harbour View coach, Donovan Hayles.
"Although at the half Arnett were up 2-1, I told the guys not to let them off the hook. We made some defensive changes, we put Lovell Palmer on Kelly and we got Donald Stewart to help out the right side of defence and the rest is history," he said.
After having the game to win Arnett Gardens' coach Jerome Waite was cognisant of what went wrong: "The defensive line went to pieces, the concentration faltered rapidly and that resulted in Harbour View winning this game," he said.
Constant Spring upstage champions
LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter
PORTMORE United's goal of rising to the top of the Wray & Nephew National Premier League (NPL) standings came to a halt yesterday as Constant Spring altered their path with a 1-0 defeat at Ferdie Neita Park.
Portmore remained in third spot on 30 points, while Constant Spring jumped to 21 points in seventh position.
In a game marked by poor officiating and poorer tactical play, particularly from the defending champs, Constant Spring's Oneal Morrsion's 22nd minute goal was one of the few highlights of the game.
Portmore made a late surge in the second half with 10 men following the ejection of Wolry Wolfe, who received his second yellow card in the 65th minute for a scuffle with Constant Spring's Jermaine Richards.
Last year's leading NPL scorer, Roen Nelson, who has been having a bumpy season, had an excellent opportunity to score the equalizer following Wolfe's exit but cleared it over the crossbar.
Nelson, along with Adrien Mitchell and Andrew Morrison, took some impressive shots but were denied with excellent goalkeeping by Leighton Murray.
Constant Spring could have scored more goals had they not excluded their ace striker Markino Gillings from their attack. However, their coach Geoffery Maxwell, said that his team came with a plan and executed efficiently to earn full points.
"I think we played very well tactically. The overall idea was to block the middle and get to the flanks," Maxwell said.
"Tactically we came with a plan and it worked," he added.
Desmond Smith, who was fulfilling coaching duties for Lenworth Hyde, who was serving the second of his two-game suspension, blamed Portmore's poor form on fatigue.
"The guys had played seven games in 15 days so I guess fatigue started to set in," he said.
Compounding the fatigue factor, Smith said: "We didn't put away the chances that we got and that is the main downfall why we got this result. They scored pretty early and we got numerous chances but just failed to score."
Victory brings relief to Waterhouse
Paul A. Reid , Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU
WATERHOUSE ENSURED a share of the lead in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League (NPL) points standings going into Christmas after scoring a hard fought 2-1 win over struggling Seba United in their second round clash at Jarrett Park yesterday.
Roberto Fletcher in the sixth minute and Kevin Lamey in the 64th ensured Seba United extended their winless streak to 10 games and remain stuck in the relegation zone in 11th place, just ahead of Star Cosmos.
Denton Vidal had drawn Seba level when he scored from close range in time added at the end of the first half.
After failing to win their two games leading into yesterday's encounter, the win was a relief for Waterhouse's coach, Harold Thomas, who told The Gleaner afterwards:
"It's a relief to get back to winning ways. We are still not back to our best, we have some players still with the flu but we had to put them into the game. We had to dig deep to get this win and that is why it is so much more rewarding."
He added: "We wanted it more, we had some bad games in the past few weeks and we are fighting to get back to our first round form and this will spur us on."
It was a different story for Seba United's Edwin Alcock, who took over for the Everton Tomlinson, who is not with the team anymore.
Alcock placed the blame for the loss, at least the second goal, squarely at the feet of goalkeeper Kenrick Picknight, who he said as a senior player should have done more to stop the ball that passed him at his near post.
"We fought hard but we gave up two soft goals, one in the first half and one at a crucial time in the second half. Look at the stage of the game when the goalkeeper choose to give up a goal? Things like this can't help the team, we are very inexperienced right now with one or two experienced players on which too much pressure is being put on them," Alcock said.
He added that the team, without the influential Damion Williams and Denzil Watson yesterday through injuries, needed new players if they were to compete and pull themselves out of relegation danger.
