By Raymond Graham, Freelance WriterSPANISH TOWN:
LEADERS HARBOUR View maintained their dominance over Rivoli United as they scored a hard fought 1-0 victory in their Wray and Nephew National Premier League match at Prison Oval yesterday.
Nicholas McCreath's 33rd minute goal made the difference, but the home team was very unfortunate as a late second half penalty miss by Derrick Planter denied them a chance to share the points.
STOUT DEFENDING
Harbour View came out very attacking at the start of the game as led by the much-improved Sean Fraser, along with Luton Shelton and Nicholas McCreath, they were all over their opponents who defended for dear life.
It was no surprise when McCreath, after getting a good pass from Fraser just outside the 18 yards box, kicked hard and low to the right of goalkeeper Mashel Nelson to give his team the lead.
Harbour View should have at least scored on two other occasions but failed to do so due to poor finishing as they went into the break with a 1-0 lead.
"We were very poor in our finishing today and we should have at least scored three goals in the first half," Harbour View's coach Donovan Hayles said. "Defending, we were very good but we had an average second half and this allowed Rivoli to take control of the game."
MAJOR SETBACK
With the second half just four minutes old, the home team suffered a major setback as they lost the services of their influential player, Garfield Reid, due to injury. The exit of Reid did not affect the team, however, as new Brazilian signee Maurioio Alencar was very instrumental as he added some injection to the Rivoli team and won the penalty that Planter missed.
"I thought we played a good game and should have won. When we missed that penalty, we were taking over the game and if that penalty had scored I am very confident that we could have gone away with the three points," bemoaned Rivoli's coach Bradley Stewart.
