3 months ago
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Montego Bay United drew first blood in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) quarterfinals, after a 2-1 win over Tivoli Gardens in the first leg at the Stadium East complex last night.
Owayne Gordon fired Montego Bay in front in the 38th minute, and although Roshawn Oldfield equalised in the 74th minute, Jourdain Fletcher found the winner four minutes from the end.
Montego Bay coach Paul Davis said it was important to gain an advantage after the first 90 minutes.
“We are competing for the semifinals, so it was very important we got this win,” Davis said. “As long as we can play our game, defend and attack as a team, and score some goals, there is no doubt we will be victorious.” With the game interrupted after 35 minutes, due to a floodlight failure at Sabina Park on Thursday and rescheduled to yesterday, only the last nine minutes of the first half was contested. The action produced very little, as both teams barely got into their strides.
However, the second half was filled with a lot of action and incidents. The first incident came in the 58th minute when Demario Phillips of Montego Bay escaped with only a caution after a dangerous tackle.
Moments later, Gordon was brought down on the left wing for what seemed a soft foul and from the resulting free kick, he fired the ball off the crossbar and post before it settled in the net.
Before the game restarted, the Tivoli bench and some Montego Bay players were embroiled in a fracas, which took a few minutes to calm and ended with Tivoli assistant coach Edsel Scott receiving a yellow card.
Tivoli seemed down and out after the restart but then got a goal out of the blue, through Oldfield who latched on to a touch from Anthony Nelson and drilled a low shot past goalkeeper Davonnie Burton.
Tivoli sprang to life after the goal and came close through a Nichalia Fuller free kick, which Burton had to parry around his post.
However, Montego Bay weathered the storm and retook the lead close to full time, after the Tivoli defence failed to clear a throw into the box, and Shaniel Thomas passed to Fletcher who scored from three yards.
“There is not much to talk about for the last nine minutes (first half) but in the second half both teams stepped up their intensity,” said Tivoli coach Jerome Waite. “But our goalkeeper should have helped us. That (first goal) is a soft goal. It’s the play-offs now, we can’t afford to make those mistakes but we still have 90 more minutes to play.”
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