Waterhouse keen to extend semis trend

In recent Jamaica Premier League semi-final ties, Waterhouse have never failed to close out teams when leading after the first leg. The Marcel Gayle-coached team will look to continue that streak and book their place in the final when they face Mount Pleasant Academy in their second-leg semi-final at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence today at 12 p.m.

Waterhouse will start the game holding on to a one-goal lead after winning the first leg 1-0 on Saturday. The result continues a recent trend of opening semi-final wins for Waterhouse, which has resulted in them advancing to the Premier League finals twice recently.

In the 2017-18 season, they also had a one-goal lead over Arnett Gardens after the first leg and closed the deal with a 2-1 win in the subsequent return leg. Similarly, in 2018-19, Waterhouse put two past Cavalier in the opening leg before closing the deal with a 1-0 win in the return fixture en route to their second consecutive final.

While history shows that Waterhouse have more reason to have a positive outlook heading into the decisive leg, assistant coach Damion Gordon is still wary of a Mount Pleasant team that had various chances themselves to score goals in the first game. Gordon said that given the attacking capabilities of both teams, they are not looking to change much from Saturday.

“The approach is very simple. We still want to maximise on our strengths, and we still want to exploit their weaknesses,” Gordon said. “It’s two quality teams. At most times we cancelled each other out (in the first leg).”

Chances came at both ends in that game as Waterhouse’s Andre Fletcher and Mount Pleasant’s Kesslon Hall both missed great chances to put their team in front, before Shaqueil Bradford’s 79th-minute goal gave Waterhouse the slim advantage on aggregate. It is an advantage that Gordon says they cannot be comfortable with, as he expects a similar game.

VERY CLOSE LEG

“(The goal) is very important, but it is two legs and we cannot stop. The (first leg) was very close, and I don’t think that the second leg will be much different,” Gordon said.

Meanwhile, Mount Pleasant are looking to prevent an all-Kingston and St Andrew final as the last team standing from outside of both parishes.

Their only semi-final appearance was in their debut season in 2019, where they faced a similar one-goal deficit heading into the second leg against Portmore United. However, they would not be successful, losing 3-2 on aggregate to the eventual champions.

Interim head coach Walter Downes says that their rate of creating chances was one of the positive signs from the first leg and is confident of his team’s ability to get the required result, despite the lack of opportunities to recover physically.

“Waterhouse have had a break, we all know that, and we had five games in 16, 17 days. That’s fine as well, because they are a little bit rusty and we have been winning games. They have given me everything, and the players and I know that they will come again on Wednesday (today),” Downes said.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com