Adrian Frater, News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
WADADAH CREATED one of the biggest upsets of the 2005-06 Wray & Nephew National Premier League football competition yesterday evening when a double strike by Rohan Reid gave them a surprise come-from-behind 2-1 win over champions Portmore United at Jarrett Park.
Wadadah are still facing relegation woes in 10th place on 16 points and coach Anthony 'Follies' Williams was a picture of happiness following the final whistle. According to him, the team finally got a chance to train properly this week and it showed in their performance.
Despite the loss, Portmore are still well placed in the upper half of the standings on 27 points. The defeat was only their second for the entire season.
"We started using Jarrett Park for training this week and it was quite obvious in the way we played today," said Williams, whose team has no training facilities of their own. "The decision to move Reid up into the attack with Jermaine Anderson also paid off for us as he got the two goals and missed several."
KEENLY CONTESTED GAME
The game, which was keenly contested, saw the Portmore team dominating the early exchanges with their slick passing and smooth transition from midfield into attack. However, they had problems penetrating the compact Wadadah defence, which had a good game.
Wadadah created the first chance of the game in the seventh minute when the burly Anderson broke away from the Portmore defence, but his powerful grounder went inches wide of the goal and the diving goalkeeper.
Portmore bounced back in the 16th minute and took the lead with a brilliant strike. The speedy Omar Daley broke free down the right flank and fired a low cross inside the goal area. The alert Kevin Deerr pounced on the ball and flashed a perfect header between the goalkeeper and the near post, making the score 1-0.
The champions should have doubled their lead in the 26th minute when Deerr used his chest to drop a superb pass into the path of the overlapping Chris Dawes, but his shot crashed into the side netting.
MISSED CHANCES
With time ticking away in the half, Wadadah missed three chances in rapid succession in the 37th, 44th and 45th minutes, all to Reid.
The second half saw Wadadah taking up from where they ended in the first half, peppering the Portmore defence with all out attack. In the 49th minute, Reid pounced on a bouncing ball inside the goal area but instead of picking his spot, he fired an aimless shot high over the crossbar.
With the fans shouting to coach Williams to replace him, Reid finally got on the scoresheet in the 65th minute. A smartly taken free kick by Zico Herrera found him unmarked before the goal and his glancing header gave the goalkeeper no chance, making the score 1-1.
Portmore got a glorious chance to reclaim the lead in the 69th minute when Anthony Modeste dribbled nonchalantly into the Wadadah half but his scorching grounder, which seemed destined for goal, was brilliantly blocked by goalkeeper Gavine Barrett.
With action swinging from end to end and both teams taking turns in attack, Wadadah took the lead in the 75th minute. Reid beat the Portmore off-side trap and sped away before firing a powerful shot past the goalkeeper to make the score 2-1.
Wadadah 2
Rohan Reid, 49th, 65th
Portmore 1
Kevin Deerr, 16th.
