Nodley Wright, Freelance Reporter

Village United's dream run in the third round continued on Wednesday at the Elliston Wakeland Centre, as they held top of the table Portmore United to a 0-0 draw in the Cash Plus Premier League. Village are still the only team to lose a game in the third round in the league.

The point apiece saw Portmore United move into the clear lead on 57 points, one ahead of Tivoli Gardens, while Village United inched up to the precious sixth position on goal difference over St Georges of Portland.

Wednesday's display by the home team was a big improvement on their last showing when they also played to a 0-0 draw with relegation threatened Reno FC of Westmoreland.

Though the visitors started out looking the better of the two teams in the first 15 minutes, as they passed the ball around fluently, the home team soon found their footing and took the upper hand in play, which was affected by wind and later soggy underfoot conditions.

shaky

Portmore, at times, looked a little shaky in defense with the unsually solid Anthony Modeste making uncharacteristic errors. One such error presented Village with, perhaps, their best opportunity in the 26th minute. The ball broke kindly for Fabian Dawkins after Modeste missed a clearance, but the man who scored Jamaica's lone goal in the 2001 Under-20 World Championship in Argentina, did not take the opportunity to shoot at the goal with Shawn Sawyers at his mercy. He, instead, passed to Omar Allen who was dispossessed by Adrian Reid.

Three minutes later, Ian McAnuff fired a long-ranged shot just high and another mistake from Modeste in the 31st minute presented Orlando McBayne with an opportunity, but he fired just wide.

McBayne turned provider nine minutes later when his cross from the right found Allen just inside the box. The aggressive forward cut inside his marker Omar Campbell and prepared to unleash, but was blocked on the point of contact by Tyrone Sawyers.

progress

The second half progressed more or less in the same fashion with Leon Irving's long distance free kick testing Sawyers in the 47th minute. The former national custodian dived well to his right to parry it to safety.

Portmore United had their best opportunity to hit the back of the net in the 60th minute when Wolry Wolfe's effort from about 25 yards was tipped onto the crossbar by the solid Ryan Cooper in the Village goal. The ball rebounded to the league's leading scorer, Roen Nelson, about eight yards from goal, but he could not find the target. Kevin Derr replaced Nelson but made little impact on the game.

"I feel like we lost two points here today. We allowed Portmore United too much space to play, especially in the midfield," said Village United coach Paul 'Tegat' Davis.

He added that his players gave too much space to the Portmore players in the midfield but that "it was a better performance than the last game".

Portmore's Linval Dixon was pleased to get a point away from home.

"We definitely knew it would be a tough game, playing on this surface is not ideal but a point is good.

"Maybe they had the edge a little in the physical part of the game but at the end of the day a point is good for us," Dixon opined.