Harbour View blank valiant Maroons
Published:Tuesday | October 25, 2022 | 12:12 AM
Chapelton Maroons produced a spirited display, keeping reigning champions Harbour View honest during their Jamaica Premier League debut last night.
But it was the ‘Stars of the East’ that ended up making the perfect start in their title defence with a 2-0 win in their game last night at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.
Nicholas Hamilton opened the scoring in the 41st minute and Ryan Wellington sealed the points in the 88th as Harbour View survived a rough start to edge a Chapelton Maroons team that caught them by surprise.
Similar to how Faukland FC, another promoted team, gave Mount Pleasant a scare in their opening game, the Maroons caused the Ludlow Bernard-coached team problems, something which was not helped by the way his team started the game.
“Chapelton started brightly and I think it kind of surprised us.. There are no excuses for our start. Our start was very slow. Eventually as we got into the game we got dominant and I thought once we got dominant in the game it was only a matter of time,” Bernard said.
The breakthrough came from Hamilton who was a key player in Harbour View’ play-off run last season and continued where he left to get his team on the right path. While Bernard would have rather avoided a wake-up call similar to Mount Pleasant’s narrow 2-1 win on Sunday, he said that the team needed to be better but said that Chapelton made them work for the win.
“I really didn’t want a surprise with a new team. Probably our wake-up call was a little different because they hit the crossbar. Then and only then we realised what was happening. The opposition had nothing to lose and I thought they played a very good game,” Bernard said.
The result aside, assistant coach Tashana Vincent praised her team’s fight and aggression in putting the defending champions on the backfoot.
“We are not disappointed. We saw a lot of positives that we can work on. We were creating a lot of chances and we were playing the brand of football that Chapelton Maroons and Lenworth Hyde (head coach) are used to. And it was working for us for long periods of time,” Vincent said.
Chapelton were dealing with a thin squad with some of the players in the midst of their schoolboy football season and some unavailable because of what she called administrative glitches. However, Vincent said that yesterday’s opener sets them up for a strong fight in their inaugural top flight campaign.