Williams angry after late goal denies TG

Tivoli Gardens (TG) head coach, Philip Williams, was angry and disappointed after his team conceded a late equaliser to Portmore United in their Jamaica Premier League (JPL) encounter at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence yesterday.

The west Kingston-based Tivoli Gardens were on the verge of victory in their opening match of the season, only for an 88th-minute Shai Smith goal to cancel out Warner Brown’s 42nd-minute strike.

“We were so close to getting all three points and so I am a bit let-down and disappointed that we didn’t get all three points,” said Williams.

“I think we did well enough to get all three points, but lack of concentration at the end let us down,” he said.

Williams stated that they have assembled a very young team for this year’s competition and these players have been working very hard in training and therefore he expects them to improve as the season progresses.

“This is our first game and there are a lot of youngsters here and one of them, Warner Brown, scored for us and so we only get better from here on,” Williams said.

However, Portmore United coach Lenworth ‘Teacher’ Hyde was pleased with the point.

“It is not a bad result for us seeing how we played. A draw is good for us,” said Hyde. “I think that Tivoli played well for most of the game and we played about 20 minutes and to get a draw is pleasing for me,” he added.

Tivoli dominated the first half with their attacking trio of Warner, Horatio Morgan and Rikardo Oldham proving very difficult for the Portmore United defenders to handle.

Brown, a former St Andrew Technical High Manning Cup star, broke the deadlock for Tivoli with a beautiful 20-yard right-footed shot which went like a rocket past custodian Eric Edwards and into the back of the net three minutes before half-time.

Tivoli, who looked much fitter than their opponents, also dominated the second period but faulty shooting from the likes of Brown and Morgan let them down.

However, after soaking up at the pressure from Tivoli, Portmore came alive in the final 10 minutes of the match and they were rewarded when Smith’s powerful shot deflected off a Tivoli defender and into the back of the net.

Meanwhile, in the opening match of the double-header, Dunbeholden defeated Vere United 2-1.

Atapharoy Bygrave in the eighth minute and Jamiel Hardware, 90th, were the scorers for Dunbeholden. Lamar Neil scored for Vere United in the 54th minute.