NPL Round #36 Wrap-Up

By  reporter@premidictor.net

Wednesday, April 30th , 2008

 

Portmore United celebrate in style

 

 

 

Portmore United officially wrapped up the National Premier League with a stylish 3-0 win over Waterhouse at the Ferdie Neita Park last night.

Brian Bayliss opened the scoring in the 22nd minute before Ricardo Cousin doubled the lead in the 60th before leading scorer Reon Nelson fittingly put the icing on the cake in the 89th minute with his 15th goal of the season.

It was a performance worthy of champions and Portmore celebrated their second title in three years and their fourth overall.

Portmore moved to an unassailable 71 points and lead by nine points with two games remaining.

Waterhouse with their eighth loss of the campaign stayed in fifth spot on 48 points.

 

At the Edward Seaga Sports Complex, home team Tivoli Gardens secured second spot after blanking outgoing champion Harbour View 2-0.

Goals by the young and talented Jermaine Allen in the 30th and Jermaine Taylor in the 42nd provided Tivoli with their 19th win from 36 games.

Tivoli Gardens moved to 62 points, eighth clear of third placed Boys' Town and into the newly formed CONCACAF Champions League playoffs.

For Harbour View it was another disappointed display losing their ninth game but only just hanging on to fourth spot on 49 points.

 

At Lynch Park in Portland, the visiting August Town must be cursing their luck after dropping two crucial points in the relegation battle against St George's.

August Town took the lead in the 21st minute courtesy of the bustling Jermaine Simpson and was looking to secure maximum three points.

But substitute Richardo Watson would have not of it and leveled the scores in the 90th minute for an important share of the points.

August Town inched to 35 points but remained rooted to the bottom of the 12-team league with two rounds to go.

St George's which barely avoided their third straight loss since the fourth round started, moved to 40 points in 10th spot and still not out of the waters.

 

Meanwhile Arnett Gardens eked out a crucial away point in a 0-0 draw against the in form Village United at the Elliston Wakeland Centre.

Arnett, back-to-back champions in 2001/02, stayed three points clear of the relegation zone on 40 point in ninth spot while Village consolidated top spot in the lower group on 46 points.

 

The Seba United/Reno game was not played because Seba had transportation difficulty and that game will have to be rescheduled.

Reno, second from bottom on 37 points are desperate for a good result to elevate themselves from the relegation zone but will have to wait anxiously.

Seba are on 41 points in eighth spot but not safe and based on their recent form could be in for a torrid last three set of games.

 

At Brancourt, home team Sporting Central Academy held Boys' Town to a 2-2 draw in an exciting encounter.

Boys' Town went ahead via an own goal in the fourth minute but Hughan Gray leveled the scores in the 26th minute for Sporting Central.

The combative Garfield Gillespie again gave Boys' Town the lead in the 38th minute but once again Sporting came back to tie the game courtesy of Damail Samuels in the 84th.

 

Boys' Town which had a good surprised season, stayed third on 54 points and look set to finish the season in that position ahead of top teams Harbour View and Waterhouse.

Sporting Central from Clarendon also performed above expectations, holding down sixth place on 44 points and could finish higher with two games remaining.