Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
WATERHOUSE FC plodded their way to a 1-0 victory over Rivoli United at the Waterhouse Mini Stadium yesterday, keeping their hopes of closing a mammoth lead on Wray and Nephew National Premier League leaders Harbour View.
Following a scoreless first half with very limited open play and legitimate scoring opportunities, Waterhouse flew out of the gates at the start of the second half and got an immediate result.
Desmond Breakenridge profited from the hard work of Irvino English, who fought his way down the left flank to produce a well weighted cross, which was gently tapped past Rivoli custodian Moschell Nelson by Breakenridge to give his team the lead with only 30 seconds of the second half gone.
"It was a lacklustre performance but I think not training for two days may have played a part in that," remarked Waterhouse coach Wayne Fairclough.
Waterhouse, which stayed second on 35 points - 13 behind leaders Harbour View - in truth never did look sharp on the offensive side of things and having scored the go-ahead goal seemed to ease back and soak up pressure from the Rivoli team.
TRIED TOO HARD
"I think anxiety and complacency played a role in us scoring only one goal today, we were trying too hard to score. If we kept the ball and played our game I think we would have scored more goals, instead we played Rivoli's game," he reasoned.
For the Rivoli team their frustration at being unable to find the back of the net came to a head when striker Devon Hodges was given marching orders for a harsh tackle and the verbal abuse of a fourth official.
"I think we played better football than Waterhouse, but one mistake saw us go behind. Things were not going well for us, we got no calls and we got a lot of early cards," remarked Rivoli coach Anthony Thompson.
But Rivoli's troubles were increased by the fact that a Spring win puts them now only one point clear of bottom-placed Spring in the relegation zone.
"This is very concerning, we cannot score any goals and we haven't been playing well but we will look to improve as the season progresses," he said.
Rivoli's best chance of the game fell to Jervis Sewell who in the 60th minute, was lurking at the back post and finding himself with an open goal, headed the ball back across the target.
GOALSHEET
Waterhouse 1
Desmond Breakenridge, 46th
Rivoli 0
