Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
Maxwell
NEWLY REINSTATED Waterhouse coach Geoffrey Maxwell is confident that his team will win the Wray and Nephew National Premier League.
This proclamation has come on the heels of a hard fought 1-0 win over second place Portmore United in Thursday's late evening fixture at the Drewsland Mini Stadium.
"This is all a part of the preparation towards the semi-finals and I still believe and am very confident that Waterhouse will win the premier league," Maxwell said.
The win puts Waterhouse on 63 points, which ties them with Portmore but puts them in third on goal difference with three games left to go. They will next face Constant Spring at the Spring complex tomorrow.
In a game where tough tackling and determined defending were major factors, a win had looked quite plausible for them as in the 40th minute a high footed challenged by Irvino English on Portmore's Jason Morrison saw him sent off with a second yellow card.
Similar to their Red Stripe Champions Cup triumph against Harbour View, Portmore began the second half with an extra man. But this time they were met by stubborn defending and Waterhouse refused to budge.
They then went on to pick Portmore's pockets to run off with all the points through a goal scored in the 62nd minute. A corner that saw the normally dependable goalie Shawn Sawyers strangely fall flat on his back, ended up at the back post on the head of Adrian Reid, who headed into an empty net to give his team the all-important goal and the win.
Portmore United, who would have been hoping to take all three points from the game, now find themselves two points behind current league leaders Harbour View and this may in fact prove to be a very costly loss.
Portmore United coach Paul Young was not all pleased with both his team's performance, but he felt badly about the officiating.
"I have to question the calls because it was obvious that the keeper was punched on the play. There is no reason why he would be on the ground, but overall our transition game wasn't where it should have been and it cost us."
Maxwell was pleased with his team's performance and went on to say that being a man down was a situation they prepared for.
"It was a very good game. Both teams were at each other's throat and we were lucky to come away with the result. We have been training the last few days 10 versus 11 after we saw what happened to Harbour View, because during the course of the game these things happen so we wanted to be prepared."
