Sport

Harbour View four points clear in NPL

By AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff Reporter

Arnett Gardens' Gerald Neil (left) and Portmore United's Bryan Bayliss jostle for possession during the Wray and Nephew National Premier League match at the Ferdie Neita Park yesterday. Arnett Gardens won 2-1. - Winston Sill

HARBOUR VIEW last night let out a notch on rivals with a 2-0 win over Wadadah, sprinting four points clear in the race for the Premier League million-dollar bonus.

Midfielder Sean Fraser netted in the 36th and 48th minutes to push the Stars of the East to 68 points at Jarrett Park, four clear of Tivoli Gardens and Waterhouse with two games left in a mad rush for the the preliminary round bonus.

Biggest gain

Tivoli made the biggest gain of the afternoon, moving from fourth to second on 64 points after whipping Reno 6-2 at the Edward Seaga Stadium. However, the men from west Kingston will have to bank on too many possibilities and can only end the round on 70 points.

On the contrary, Waterhouse, with whom Tivoli share 64 points, are still very much in the running after wasting a mountain of chances in a 1-1 draw at Constant Spring.

The men from Drewsland have a game in hand against Wadadah and can end on 73 points, whereas leaders Harbour View are looking to finish the round on 71 from their two remaining games.

Portmore United's hunt for the million-dollar bonus ended in their backyard after a 1-2 loss at Ferdie Neita Park. Portmore hit reverse, dropping two places down from second to fourth.

It was the second consecutive league loss for Portmore and the Red Stripe Champions Cup knockout winners attention will now turn to completing their preliminary round fixtures, having already qualified for the semifinals.

In a dramatic round of games, relegated Invaders were hammered 15-0 by Rivoli at the Spanish Town Prison Oval with Devon Hodges booting in 10 goals. The other relegated team, Arlington, held their heads high to beat Village 2-0 at the Elliston Wakeland Centre.

At Constant Spring, coach Geoffrey Maxwell watched in agony as his attackers dashed several chances to beat the home team. Goalie Ralston Robinson produced two good saves in particular a one-handed block off a Kevin Lamey blast to keep his side competitive before Shawn Hunter put them 1-0 up in the 33rd minute.

However, with Constant Spring fans still celebrating, Waterhouse struck two minutes later when Kirk Ramsay clinically met substitute Weston Forrest's corner with a clean header at the backpost, levelling the game 1-1.

Frustrated

Frustrated with his forwards wayward shooting, Maxwell first substituted Uche Chinyere in the 57th minute and after getting tired of Lamey's selfishness, took off the Drewsland hitman seven minutes from time, replacing him with the speedy Roberto Fletcher.

"I am very disappointed with the performance of the team as a whole," Maxwell said after the match. "We'll have to go and take a look and decide on what to do for the upcoming games because we had rested five players this afternoon."

Constant Spring technical director Danny Lyn was understandably quite content with a draw.

"We're just honouring our fixtures because we can't go up nor down," he said.

Constant Spring are 10th in the standings on 29 points, well clear of the relegation zone.

The league continues Wednesday with Arnett Gardens hosting Constant Spring, Waterhouse at home against Invaders and Rivoli awaiting Wadadah.

On Thursday it will be Tivoli at home against Village, Harbour View awaiting Reno and Arlington at the Spanish Town Prison Oval against Portmore United.

Teams	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
H. View 31 20			5	6	54	32	22 68
Tivoli	31	18 11		3	62 26		36	64
Waterhouse	30	18	8	4	51 24		27	64
Portmore U.	31	17	9	5	50 18		32	63
Arnett	31 17		4 10		48	33	15 55
Village	30	9	9 12		38 39		-1	36
Rivoli	31	10	5 16		49	34	15 35
Wadadah	30	8	7 15		35	61	-26 31
C. Spring	31	6 12 13 30 45					-15 29
Reno	30	6 10 14			25 41		-16 28
Arlington	31	5	7 19		21 59		-38 22
Invaders	31	2 10 19 23 73					-51 16