1 month ago
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Cavalier coach Rudolph Speid said he felt good to see his team sitting on top of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) after they turned in a dominant performance to ease past 10-man Waterhouse 2-0 at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday.
Jalmaro Calvin fired the champions in front after 12 minutes, and three minutes after goalkeeper Kemar Foster was shown the red card in the 32nd minute, Dwayne Atkinson fired in the second of the game.
The win puts Cavalier on seven points, one ahead of Harbour View, who defeated Molynes United 2-1 in an early match.
“It is a good result. Last year this time we were tenth in the league. But this is a good feeling. We are right where we want to be,” Speid said.
“We knew it would be a tough game, but we tried to make it as hard as possible for our opponents. We were already leading (when they went down to 10 men). But Foster is one of the best goalkeepers in the business, so that eased the pressure on us.”
Cavalier dominated the early minutes of the game, and Calvin had the first real chance, but he dragged his shot wide of the target.
However, the forward gave Cavalier the lead a couple minutes later when Atkinson turned his marker inside out before setting Calvin to score from six yards.
The defending champions nearly added a second in the 24th minute, but Adrian Reid Jr failed to connect cleanly with a free kick from seven yards out.
Waterhouse’s day was made worse in the 32nd minute after a poor back pass from Nickoy Christian forced Foster to commit a last-ditch tackle, for which he was shown a red card.
TWO-NIL LEAD
With his first touch of the match, substitute goalkeeper John Wilson, trying to play out from the back, passed to Roshawn Amos, who lost possession to Atkinson six yards out. Atkinson then fired past the hapless Wilson to put his team 2-0 up.
Two minutes before the break, Atkinson rattled the bar after more defensive blunders by the Marcel Gayle-coached team.
Waterhouse refused to give in despite being two goals and a man down, and Elvis Wilson came close with a towering header that Vino Barclett had to dig out from inside his left-hand post.
However, they continued to make mistakes at the back, and Shaquille Stein slammed a loose ball against their post in the 55th minute.
Although disappointed with the result, Waterhouse coach Gayle praised the effort of his players.
“Definitely not the result (we wanted). But we take heart from the game as in the second half, I thought we defended stoutly.
“Cavalier are a seasoned team. We should have shown more respect, but I thought we learned our lesson, and second half we came out and did our due diligence,” he said.
Today’s games
5 p.m: Chapelton vs Montego Bay
7:30 p.m: Portmore vs Tivoli Gardens
Both games will be played at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.
English (US) ·