Paul-Andre Walker, Staff ReporterLenworth Hyde Jr.'s first peek at top flight football for his new club Harbour View worked out well at the Harbour View Mini Stadium on Thursday night.
Harbour View made their way into the third round of the Red Stripe Champions Cup by beating Seba United 2-1 on aggregate.
They had mixed fortunes after watching Luton Shelton, who has been having a nightmare of a season, clutching his hamstring in the 36th minute. However, they also witnessed the brilliance of Hyde Jr., who was his replacement in the 39th.
At that point the national striker had already struck the back of the net in the fifth minute, but 'the Stars of the East' needed another goal to push themselves into the third round.
That goal came from Fabian Taylor in the 68th minute after Harbour View had missed a host of chances.
However, it was the dominance of Hyde Jr., who clearly expressed his desire to take charge of the game, which proved to be the major highlight.
Taking every free-kick, to good effect on most occasions, delivering accurate corners, and playing lovely one-touch football, Hyde Jr. seems ready to fit into the Harbour View line-up.
Hyde's only shortcoming was not scoring what would have been his first goal at Harbour View, when he was put through by Taylor close to the end of the game.
Harbour View's coach didn't comment on the confident ball-playing midfielder's performance, but did indicate that his team were playing better football.
"We were moving the ball around a little better. We created more chances today. We still didn't score as much as we should have but that's because of the confidence. The fact that we got two goals augurs well for that confidence though," said Hayles of his team which has been going through a bad patch lately.
Seba's Heron Grey, the premier league Coach of the Month, agreed that Harbour View played well, but thought his team was a little tired.
"Harbour View was running today. We looked a little weary. I don't know if it was because of the long journey but nevertheless, congrats to Harbour View, it was a good game," he said.
