Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

WADADAH TOOK over sole leadership in the four-team pre-season football tournament, featuring the four Wray and Nephew NPL contenders from Western Jamaica, when they clipped Reno 1-0 in the first game of Wednesday night's double-header at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.

By virtue of their win, Wadadah, 3-2 first-round winners over Village United, have jumped to six points which leaves them within a point of winning the tournament.

New recruit Torey Samuels was the man on target for Wadadah with a first-half strike.

In the second game of the double-header, the Jeffrey Maxwell-coached Seba United, who had a first round 2-0 win over Reno, went down to a 2-1 defeat to Village United, which left both teams locked on three points in joint second place behind Wadadah.

In commenting on his team's good showing, Wadadah's coach, Anthony 'Follies' Williams, asked fans not to read too much into the results the team has achieved as, according to him, the tournament is basically being used by the teams to sort themselves out ahead of the coming NPL season.

"The teams are basically looking at the players on their rosters and trying to figure out how they will approach the NPL competition," said Williams. "We are pleased with the performance of our players because we are seeing a lot of willingness and commitment from them."

Good offensive

In what was a pretty decent display, the Wadadah team showed good offensive coordination by Jermaine Anderson, Rohan Reid and Samuels and got enough chances to have won the game by a much wider margin.

In the second game, which was played in heavy rain, Village United showed their intentions from the start and Luke Tate gave them an early first-half lead. However, Seba rallied back strongly to end the half at 1-1 courtesy of an Oliver Trail equaliser.

The second half was fast paced and exciting with both teams showing good tactical play and looking quite ominous at various stages.

Village, who looked the more composed of the teams, sealed victory when Omar Allen breached the Seba defence and fired home, making the final score 2-1.

In this Sunday's final round of games, high excitement is anticipated as Wadadah and Seba United, who have recruited a number of players from each other, will clash in the first Montego Bay derby of the season, while Reno will be hunting their first win against Village United.

While a win or a draw would make Wadadah tournament champions, should they lose to Seba and Village defeat Reno, there would be a three-way tie at the top of the standings.