Wasteful Portmore peeved at draw

Adrian Frater, News Editor
Western Bureau:

After watching his team squander numerous opportunities to embarrass Village United in Sunday's Digicel Premier League fixture at Jarrett Park, Portmore United's coach, Linval Dixon, was an extremely disappointed man at the end of the game, which ended 1-1.

"We are extremely disappointed with this result because after getting so many chances we should have won by four of five goals," said Dixon. "I know that missing goals is a part of the game but I think we missed far too many chances in this game."

For Village United's coach, Dr Dean Weatherley, who saw his team battling to a 1-1 with Boys' Town last Wednesday after a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Harbour View in their opening game, the result was a good one despite the fact that he feels the team is yet to settle in the system he wants to play.

"We gave a good account of ourselves when you consider that I came into the programme late and we are still working on the system I want the team to play," said Dr Weatherley. "I believe once the players get used to the system and start applying themselves, I definitely expect us to be a factor in this competition."

In the game which was played at a fairly hectic pace, Village United took the lead in the 21st minute when Telston Brown pounced on a superb pass from Marrian Grant and crashed home past goalkeeper Shawn Sawyers from six yards, making the score 1-0.

With Portmore United creating several opportunities to draw level and failing miserably through faulty finishing, it looked as if Village would go into the half-time break with their one-goal advantage.

Glaring miss

However, in the 45th minute, the wily Eric Vernon got to the ball ahead of the advancing goalkeeper, Donovan Rickettes, and fired home, making the score 1-1.

Except for a glaring miss midway the period when Grant squandered a glorious chance to put Village back in the lead, the second half belonged to Portmore. In fact, in addition to wasting at least three clear chances, the Portmore team also fell prey to some sharp tackling from the Village back-line.

Portmore came perilously close to moving ahead 2-1 in the 62nd minute when Ricardo Cousins breached the Village defence only to see his savage close range effort striking the left upright and rebounding into play, much to his disappointment.

Looking ahead, the Village United team, which lost Rickettes to injury on the stroke of half-time and replaced him with Elvis Hart at the start of the second half, is dead set on getting mostly positive results against the lesser teams.

"I think we did well against Boys' Town on Wednesday and again here against Portmore today," said Dr. Weatherley. "I see no reason to be worried in any way because I am expecting much better results against the less fancied teams."



Village 1, Telston Brown 21st

Portmore 1, Eric vernon 45th