Paul Reid | Jamaica Observer
Montego Bay United scored a morale-boosting 3-0 in over Harbour View win their Red Stripe Premier League second-round game at the WespoW Park in Tucker, St James, yesterday.
Three goals in an 11-minute first-half blitz from Lesley St Fleur, Fabian McCarthy and Omar Gordon, gave Montego Bay United their most satisfying result in several weeks after struggling to score in their previous 11 games.
Harbour View, the defending champions and league leaders, continued their downward spiral, winless in their last five outings and suffering back-to-back defeats.
The win saw Montego Bay United move back into second place on 36 points, one behind Harbour View before last night’s game between Waterhouse and Portmore United.
Despite their lean spell coming into the game, Hugh Solomon, who is guiding Montego Bay United, said they expected to score a lot of goals yesterday and was not surprised at the result.
“We have been working hard,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “The aim was to score four goals today, and we got three in the first half.”
Montego Bay United got the win without a number of their top players, including starting goalkeeper Jacomeno Barrett and striker Allan Ottey, who Solomon said had arrived at the venue after the time they were expected and were not included in the squad.
Andrew Hines, who was in charge for Harbour View yesterday, insisted there was no need for panic, and said the play-off format at the end was still in their favour.
He said the absence of a number of “our regular players” might have affected their rhythm, but took solace from a better second-half performance, which he said came after they “switched from the 4-4-2 formation to the 4-3-3 one” which he claimed allowed them more possession of the ball.
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Paul Clarke | Jamaica Gleaner
Three goals in an eleven-minute span gave Montego Bay United (MBU) a morale-boosting 3-0 win over Red Stripe Premier League champions and current leaders Harbour View yesterday at their Westpow Park in St James.
The win pushed Montego United back into second place with 36 points while Harbour View remain stuck on 37.
Montego Bay grabbed the lead in the 16th minute when forward Leslie St Fleur squeezed the ball over the line from a tight angle after the Harbour View goalkeeper did extremely well to block Fabian McCarthy’s rasping shot from distance.
Another moment of brilliance in midfield accounted for the second goal when defender Keniel Kirlew’s thunderous left-footed shot from 23 yards flew into the back of the net in the 20th minute.
Rattled
Harbour View looked rattled at that stage of the match and it showed in their defending, as MBU went for the third, which they got through midfielder Omar Gordon, whose decision to follow up a Dino Williams long-range effort proved the right one, as he calmly rolled the ball into the goal for his team’s third.
The Stars of the East had little punch up front, with their strikers able only to put two shots on target in the first 45 minutes, and five in total, as MBU’s young goalkeeper, Devaughn Smith, looked like a solid veteran when called on in the second half as he expertly stopped the visitors from scoring to keep a clean sheet.
“He did very well, and I am happy that we were able to stop Harbour View from scoring,” said coach Hugh Solomon.
“It was a very good performance, especially in defence, where we stood tall and tackled hard all the way to the final whistle for three very important points,” he added.