Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Harbour View Football Club's assistant coach, Donovan Hayles, commended his team on a plucky performance, which saw them keep their place at the top of the Digicel Premier League (DPL) following a 1-0 win over Tivoli Gardens, at the Harbour View Mini Stadium on Sunday night.

During the hard-tackling contest, key Harbour View midfielder, Jermaine Hue, got cut on his head and had it wrapped in bandage. He had to leave the field again to have the wrapping that got bloodied replaced.

While commending his team, Hayles still believes the Stars of East need to improve on putting away more scoring chances.

"It was a rough game tonight, but it was an entertaining one. I have to commend the team for grinding out the result, I think we played particularly well in the second half," Hayles said.

"We won but we definitely have to put away more opportunities, look for more scoring, maybe break this one-goal barrier," he added.

In their last four wins Harbour View, despite creating many chances, have triumphed by a slim one-goal margin.

On Sunday night the opportunity taken came from forward Rafiek Thomas, who put the Stars of the East ahead with 14 minutes gone in the fixture. The striker must, however, considered himself a bit lucky. After leaping to head a cross whipped into the area, he instead got his shoulder to the ball, which totally threw off Tivoli custodian Leon Gordon as the ball lobbed over his head.

Determined to pull level, the west Kingston team picked up the pace of their attacking play and created several opportunities midway the first half. A sweeping 30th minute counter attacking move caught the Harbour View defensive unit out, but left back Christopher Jackson, who found himself at the end of the move, a little to the left of the target, could not get a solid touch on the ball less than six yards away from goal.

Rich scoring

Roland Dean, a man in rich scoring form, then forced a good save from Harbour View custodian Dwayne Miller. The 'keeper had to be alert to palm away the forward's 40th minute looping header, but could only watch as Kemar Mills coasted in to head high above the target from the resulting corner.

However, in a strong finish for Harbour View, only desperate defending from the Tivoli last men prevented substitute Girvan Brown from extending the lead in time added.

"We lost but I am still proud of the way that the team played here today. It was good, attacking football," said Tivoli Gardens coach, Lenworth Hyde Sr.

"A lot of credit must go to the Harbour View back line, they stood up and defended stoutly. We got behind them a couple of times but we were just a bit unlucky," he added.