Round Five Wrap Up

By  reporter@premidictor.net

PREMIDICTOR

24/10/2007

St James outfit Seba United edged Village United 3-2 to assume sole leadership of the Cash Plus Premier League (CPPL) with 10 points after the completion of round five on Wednesday in which 20 yellow cards were show including 4 red.

In a very exciting encounter at Jarrett Park, Seba went two nil up with goals from veteran defender Norman Foster and Delroy Ellis in the ninth and 57^th minutes respectively. But Village hit back as Kemar Mills (64^th) and Fabian Dawkins (77^th) pulled the Trelawny team level.

But no sooner had they done that, Seba found the clincher immediately, courtesy of Donovan Peart in the 77^th minute.

Seba, the lone team from St James in this year’s competition, moved to 10 points, just one ahead of defending champions Harbour View on nine with Waterhouse and Portmore United sharing third spot with eight points in the 12-team league.

At the University of the West Indies (UWI) Bowl, Harbour View clipped August Town 2-1 courtesy of a double strike from national striker Fabian Taylor in the 36^th and 47^th minutes.

Midfielder David Stultz pulled one back for August Town in the 67^th minute in a hot-tempered game in which six players were shown the yellow card and Ajuran Brown of August Town given marching orders for his second bookable offence.

Taylor, who scored 15 goals last season, took his tally to three from five games with two clinical strikes. He opened the scoring after latching onto a Loxley Thomas pass and firing past the goalkeeper from inside the box. Taylor then scored his second, heading home a Robert Scarlett cross in the 47^th minute.

Although Shaw gave his team some hope in the 67^th minute, the home team could not find the equaliser and suffered their second defeat on the season to drop to sixth position on seven points.

Over at the Ferdie Neita Park in St Catherine, home team Portmore United had to settle for a 1-1 draw with newly-promoted St Georges FC in a bruising contest in which six yellow cards were shown.

Omar Henderson of St Georges was red carded after picking up his second yellow card.

National Under-23 player Ricardo Cousins gave Portmore an early lead with a rasping 25 metres shot that the goalkeeper had little clue about in the fifth minute.

Portmore could not maintain their lead and gave up the equaliser in the 40^th minute from the penalty spot as Adrian Reid brought down Damion Harwood giving referee Courtney Campbell no choice but to point to the spot. Omar Brissett, who stood a few feet away from the ball, calmly slotted home for a share of the points.

Portmore remained in fourth spot on eight points just two points behind the leader while the Portland-based St Georges picked up their fifth point of the season while moving up one place to ninth in standing.

Former champion Waterhouse slipped from second to joint third after playing to an exciting 1-1 draw with the second-promoted team Sporting Central at the Spanish Town Prison Oval.

Waterhouse’s Jomo Gordon continued his rich vein of form hitting his fourth goal of the season in 69^th minute after some brilliant work by the skilful Damion Williams.

But Sporting Central was not to be denied and Onekie Ford grabbed his season leading fifth goal of the campaign in the 90^th minute to level the scores for the boys from Clarendon.

Sporting Central, which led Harbour View 2-0 last Sunday before drawing 2-2, are seventh on seven points ahead of several established teams and are proving that they belong in the top flight.

In the most anticipated game of the round between two of the fiercest rivals, Arnett Gardens and Tivoli Gardens battled to a controversial 1-1 draw at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.

Leon Strickland gave the host Arnett Gardens the lead in the 18^th minute from the penalty spot after he was foul by Victor Thompson.

The fiery contest reached fever pitch after Tivoli Gardens won a penalty in the 38^th minute and the kick taken by Oraine Simpson went inches wide of the right upright. But the Tivoli players started celebrating while their opponent rushed to referee Kevin Thomas complaining that the ball did indeed went wide of the goal.

After consulting with his linesman, Ricardo Morgan, Thomas signalled no goal, sparking mayhem that halted the game for 11 minutes.

However, play resumed and the visitors eventually found the equaliser in the 68^th minute from second half substitute Jermaine Allen.

Allen, last season leading goalscorer in the under-21 competition, rifled home a loose ball past goalkeeper Julian McLeish after the Arnett defence failed to clear the ball properly.

Arnett with the point moved on to fifth position on seven points and remain one of only two teams still unbeaten from five games. Arch-rivals Tivoli Gardens occupies eighth spot on six points.

Ten-placed Boys’ Town travel to St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) to play 11^th-placed Reno today. Boys’ Town are on five points while the Westmoreland-based Reno are struggling on two points.