Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
Waterhouse's Demar Phillips in action. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WITH THE semi-finalists virtually decided, there is now the matter of a $1 million race among the big four in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League.
Only five points separate the quartet, headed by Harbour View who registered a crucial 2-1 win over Waterhouse in Wednesday's late fixture at Compound.
Luton Shelton (11th) and Marcelino Blackburn in time added at the end of the first half, scored for the Stars of the East, while Richard Edwards, through a deflected 30-yard drive, netted for Waterhouse at the 21st minute.
"It has put us clear at the top of the table and now we want to win this million dollars by placing first," said Donovan Hayles, coach of Harbour View, who advanced to 62 points.
That is two more than Portmore United, with whom they had shared the lead before the mid-week fixtures.
OTHER TEAMS SLIPPED
Significantly, the other teams in the hunt all slipped as Portmore were held goalless at home and Tivoli Gardens had to equalise twice to salvage a 2-2 draw at Constant Spring.
In essence, Harbour View opened a two-point gap on Portmore, moved four clear of Tivoli Gardens and an even wider gap on Waterhouse, who could have leap-frogged them had the result been different.
"This is basically why we're so disappointed because we realise that we'd have put ourselves in a very commanding position with a victory here tonight," explained Waterhouse's coach, Max Straw, of the damage done to his team. "Having lost the game we've to just wheel and come again."
Commenting further on the million-dollar bounty for finishing the preliminaries with the most points, Straw said: "It just means that we have to win all of those games if we intend to win it. We can't allow Harbour View to get any further above us. They're five points above us now so we have to hope that they get pegged back and we continue to make up along the journey."
If, in their remaining fixtures, the Firehouse crew play anywhere close to what they did on Wednesday night, then they can stop thinking about the big money.
Besides Edwards' strike and a Demar Phillips' strike that inched past the far post, their offensive play over the first hour was not fluent and highly ineffective.
"In the first half of the game we tried to cut the midfield out of the game, which was the mistake," Straw said. "We didn't build the ball from the back, we just started kicking it long to the strikers and it wasn't working. You can't play the game like that all the time. We needed to have run the ball through the midfield some more, change the tempo of the game to prevent them from getting at us."
The only time they did that was towards the back-end of the match when their most threatening striker, Kevin Lamey, who missed two clear chances, dropped back into midfield and settled the team into a decent passing rhythm.
COMPACT GAME
As for Harbour View, they were on song from the start and with a compact game at high pace, they threatened Waterhouse's goal all night long to make enough chances in a deserved win.
"The pride of winning is always there and we need to get in that habit also," admitted Hayles after his team recorded its sixth consecutive win in as many third round games.
"The team is on a roll and we played some good football. Tonight, I think we played an exceptionally good game for 90 minutes. There was no time in the game that I could say that Harbour View were out of it. Yes, Waterhouse will have their moments, it's a quality team but I think we were totally in control tonight."
If they continue delivering like that, then the big matter of a million dollars might just turn out to be a small thing for Harbour View.
