A bad pre-season was to be blamed as Humble Lion offered little in attack before going down 0-1 to Harbour View and crashed to their third defeat in four games at the Compound on Sunday night.
Kemeel Wolfe, who was sarcastically cheered off when he was substituted in the 77th minute, was the match winner as his deflected shot wrong-footed goalkeeper Garth Heron in the 59th.
Harbour View, with their second win of the season, jumped two places to fourth on seven points, while Humble Lion slipped three spots to 11th on three.
Following losses to Sporting Central and Arnett Gardens, Humble Lion clipped Montego Bay United, 1-0, last week to kick-start their season, but on Sunday, their woes continued with a below-par performance.
Head coach Lenworth Hyde Snr told the Jamaica Observer his team’s performance so far is basically due to a late start in training.
Said Hyde: “We’re not ready yet at all, but I love how we’re playing. We had a lot of possession, but we never created enough chances. As I said before, we didn’t have a good pre-season; we started late and it’s going to take a time for us to get going.”
He added: “But the greatest thing is we have some time. We will continue working hard and try and get them up to that standard that we were at the end of last season… it will take a little time to get the chemistry flowing again.”
Meanwhile, Harbour View dominated and should have won by a wider margin despite both teams hitting the crossbar once.
Harbour View’s head coach Vinimore ‘Vin’ Blaine was happy for the three points at home in a hard-fought game which saw them climb up the table to fourth.
Said Blaine: “We knew… that Humble Lion would come very rough. I spoke to the players to get them mentally prepared for that. We said to them that today’s game was a defining game for us going forward. If we lost this game it would really throw us back, so we needed these three points.
“We got a fortunate bounce off a deflection and a goal and we will take it any day and because we also got a good chance and the bar saved it. I am really pleased with the three points,” said Blaine.
Harbour View — Michaud Barrett, Jaron Richards, Christopher Harvey, Montrose Phinn, Robert Williams, Evan Taylor, Kemeel Wolfe (Joel Senior 77th), Jermaine Hue, Eric Vernan (Kimorlee Brissett 74th), John Ross Edwards, Roland Dean (Jermie Lynch 63rd)
Subs not used: A Taylor, N Beckett, R Morris, D Woodhouse, K Lawrence, R Lewis, D Edwards, L Hodges
Booked: John-Ross Edwards (62nd), Robert Williams (67th), Jaron Richards (85th)
Humble Lion — Garth Heron, Adrian Mitchell, Kirk Duckworth, Dwayne Dunk, Francis Ebanks, Shauntel Mundle (Michael Moreland 77th), Gregory Morgan (Michael Blygen 70th), Ricardo Campbell, Andrew Isaacs, Carlington Smith (Jermaine Christian 73rd), Omando McLoud.
Subs not used: J Messam, E Thomas, M Miller, Da Barrett
Booked: Andrew Isaacs (33rd), Kirk Duckworth (37th), Adrian Mitchell (81st).
Referee: Raymond Bogle
Assistants: Garnett Page, Stephen Brown
Fourth Official: Karl Tyrell
Match Commissary: Charlie Barrett