Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
Seba United defender Iton Scott cuts out a pass intended for Portmore United's Mario Swaby during their Wray and Nephew Knockout Premier League semi-final match at the National Stadium last night. Portmore beat Seba 3-1 to advance to the final. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE FAIRYTALE run of Seba United in the Wray and Nephew Knockout Cup came to an abrupt end last night after Portmore United crushed them 3-1 in their National Stadium semi-final contest.
Seba were the ones to get off the mark first as Norman Foster knocked home a sixth-minute penalty to give the team from the west a dream start.
That dream was to turn into a nightmare as Mario Swaby brought the teams level in the 35th minute. Things turned even worse for Seba after Glenworth Benjamin was red-carded for striking Swaby in an off-the-ball incident.
As if matters couldn't get worse, Loxley Reid, Seba's veteran goalkeeper, was injured in a head-on collision with a Portmore player towards the end of the first half and could take no further part in the afternoon's proceedings.
Even with that, Portmore had to be patient in looking for the go-ahead goal against a team that still wanted to attack them.
Against the run of play it was young Steve Morissey's 57th minute effort that made things comfortable for Portmore, who had decided to sit back and wait until Seba gave them opportunities to play dangerous counterattacks.
"We knew that they would come out attacking and even though we had the numerical advantage we decided to sit back and try to catch them on the counter," said Portmore coach Paul Young.
The game would remain at 2-1 for a long period, although Portmore could count themselves extremely unfortunate not to be on the scoresheet on a number of occasions.
With 90 minutes already gone, Portmore were to grab another, when second-half substitute, Anthony Bennett turned and struck a tame shot that went past a lethargic looking Alrick Henry.
After the game, Young, who has been one of the staunch advocates that this competition not be played at this time, indicated that his team would continue to play hard and would be looking to grab a title in the knockout's first round.
"We are going to go all out and work hard for each other," he said.
Seba's assistant coach, Peter Hurge, indicated that the first-half red card affected his game plan.
"The one man that we lost plus the red card really destroyed our game plan. We attacked more in the second half but things didn't work out the way we wanted it to," said Hurge.
PORTMORE UNITED 3
Mario Swaby 35th
Steve Morissey 57th
Anthony Bennett 90 plus.
SEBA 1
Norman Foster 6th (penalty)
