W’house coach critical of ‘wastefulness’

Waterhouse assistant coach Daniel Bent summed up their performance as wasteful, in spite of a 2-1 win over Montego Bay United (MBU) in the Jamaica Premier League yesterday.

Waterhouse had to come from behind to beat MBU, who were playing with 10 men, on the opening day of the season at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence in St Andrew.

Bent says Waterhouse could have secured the win from halftime, had they made the most of their chances.

"The performance was okay," Bent said after the game. "For the first 20 minutes, we could have been 2-0 up, and at the end of the first half we could have been 4-0 up if we had converted our chances."

But Bent credits the team for upping its tempo after conceding to MoBay.

"When they went down to 10 men, we needed to press and be a bit more ruthless, as we were giving away the ball and brought MoBay back into the game, and it's something we can improve on," he said.

Waterhouse had the better of the early exchanges and created chances through Javon James, Damion Binns, and Cardel Benbow.

However, MBU was in no way outclassed and had chances of their own through Nazime Grant, Ewan Barton, and Alrick Ottey, who had the two best chances, the second of which he put wide of an empty goal.

Two minutes after the break, Barton was dismissed for dangerous play, but MBU kept on the attack and Geovanni Reid fired them in front in the 70th minute.

However, two minutes later, Andre Fletcher equalised from the penalty spot. Devroy Grey then converted from a cross by Ricardo Thomas in the 81st minute to take the win.

MBU Technical Director Ricky Hill lamented giving up the lead so soon after going ahead.

"I am disappointed because the shift they put in was commendable," he said. "I couldn't ask for any more.

"It was a good showing but disappointed we didn't get something.

"Momentum is everything and we had momentum. I wanted to keep the shape for five minutes and take away that impetus that Waterhouse had to come out to play against 10 men.

"Unfortunately, the [water] break came at a good time for them and we could not refocus how we needed to for the first few minutes.

"So we are really disappointed we could not maintain that 1-0 lead for a bit longer."

In the day's first game, defending champions Cavalier defeated Arnett Gardens 2-1.

The league continues today with two more games at the same venue. Vere play Dunbeholden at 1 p.m. and Portmore take on Tivoli at 3:15 p.m.