Harbour View Football Club (HVFC) head coach, Donovan Hayles, was on Sunday rewarded for his willingness to give youngsters a chance on the big stage.
Digicel Premier League debutant Elton Thompson justified his coach’s faith in him by scoring the opening goal, putting on an accomplished display in Harbour View’s 2-0 win over Humble Lion, to end the Clarendon team’s four-game unbeaten run.
Thompson’s strike in the eighth minute and Marcelino Blackburn’s penalty conversion in the 79th gave them the victory and pushed them up to 37 points and fourth position on goal difference ahead of Waterhouse.
“It is a good start, but what I am more pleased with is that we had to go to more youngsters and Elton … words cannot describe how well he did because he is not a regular starter in the Under-21s, but he has worked hard and I recognised that and he did himself justice today,” a visibly pleased Hayles said at the end of the game, which took place at the Harbour View Mini Stadium.
“When you are coaching, you have to throw in new players because you cannot keep recycling old players and I am very satisfied with the young players that I have brought in as they are delivering the goods,” added Hayles, who has not been shy about giving youngsters a chance.
Humble Lion’s Lenworth Hyde Sr was understandably unhappy about the result.
“I am disappointed how we lost the game. I think we played well. We played well for most of the game, but we did not create enough chances. We had more possession of the ball, but in front of the goal we were not accurate enough. We did not create enough chances and this will set us back a bit,” Hyde said.
Early goal
In a game in which the home team always looked sharper, Harbour View made their intentions known early and it took the good work of goalkeeper Shawn Sawyers to keep the scoreline level as early as the sixth minute.
Two minutes later Sawyers was helpless as a cross which curled away from him was met with a solid and well-placed header by Thompson.
While Harbour View looked more cohesive with Jermaine Hue, Andre Steele, Kimorlee Brissett, Blackburn, Rafeik Thomas and Christopher Harvey looking purposeful, Humble Lion struggled. Denzil Watson tried his best to initiate something, but could not get Omando McLoud and Kimroy Davis, in particular, to operate on the same page.
The second half continued in the same vein with the late introduction of Demar Lawrence, Jermaine Christian and Kevin Mighty unable to influence the tide as Blackburn measured Sawyers after Ricardo Campbell was harshly given a second booking and ejected for taking down Rafeik Thomas.
The loss kept Humble Lion on 25 points, the same as St Ann’s Benfica, which went down 3-2 to joint leaders Tivoli Gardens at Drax Hall.
Devon Hodges gave Tivoli Gardens a 13th minute lead and Kevin Blackford doubled the west Kingston-based club’s advantage at the 36th. Wayne Edwards put Benfica back in the game by reducing the deficit, when he scored at the 41st minute; and Wolry Wolfe brought Benfica level at the hour-mark. However, there would be one more twist, which was provided by Raymond Williamson, who scored the game-winner that lifted his team to 41 points, the same as Portmore United.