Lowly Vere, Harbour View share points in Clarendon

Jamaica Premier League minnows Vere-Phoenix United squandered a glorious opportunity to ease themselves out of the relegation zone yesterday. They had home advantage but had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Harbour View at the Wembley Centre of Excellence.

The Lenworth Hyde-coached Vere-Phoenix now sit on 18 points in 13th position with Harbour View claiming their 20th point of the campaign, and sit just atop the relegation group on 20.

Mount Pleasant maintained their lead at the top of the standings with a 6-2 drubbing of 10-man Molynes United. Shaquille Bradford scored a double for Mount Pleasant who lead the league with 55 points. The other scorers for Mount Pleasant were Kimoni Bailey, Nicholas Nelson, Sue-Lae McCalla and Alex Marshall.

The fixture at Wembly began cagily with both sides failing to put together any meaningful attacks in the first half hour of the contest.

With half-time looming, Vere-Phoenix suddenly burst into action, as captain Matthew Woo Ling unleashed a long-range diagonal pass which found Denzel McKenzie on the left flank. McKenzie then whipped in a low cross for Kevaun Atkinson to fire past Anthony Bennett in the Harbour View goal in the 42nd minute.

That goal enraged the Harbour View coaching staff who made a number of changes going into the second half. The changes seemed to ignite the Harbour View team, who would go on to get their equaliser in the 57th minute, as forward Colorado Murray outpaced Vere-Phoenix defender Michael Graham to slam home from close range.

It was all Harbour View from there on in, as the home team’s tiring Vere defensive unit, minus Robino Gordon, tried to keep the Stars of the East off the score sheet for a second time.

A few close shaves from substitute Trayvone Reid were all Harbour View could produce, however, and Vere-Phoenix coach Hyde was disappointed with the result.

“We tried our best today, but one thing for sure is that, defensively, we’ve been giving up goals, and it came back to hurt to us today again. We had a comfortable lead and we gave up a soft goal, which is unacceptable, but the work continues,” Hyde said.

Harbour View assistant coach Damion Stewart lamented a missed opportunity to seal a crucial win.

“We started a bit slowly but I think we dominated the game. It’s two points dropped more than a point gained. We created a lot of chances but sometimes the decision-making was wrong. They crossed one ball, got one goal, and we had many chances to keep us safe and we missed them. We need to have more quality in front of goal,” Stewart said.

Yesterday’s results

Molynes 2-6 Mount Pleasant

Vere-Phoenix 1-1 Harbour View

Cavalier 1-1 Montego Bay