Rousseau strikes to earn point for Portmore
Published:Tuesday | February 7, 2023 | 1:54 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Former St George’s College ace Emelio Rousseau netted a fantastic second-half equaliser to earn Portmore a 1-1 draw with Molynes United in their Jamaica Premier League (JPL) game at the Ashenheim Stadium last night.
The 23-year-old, who was scoring his fourth goal of the season and is the club’s leading scorer, drilled an unstoppable shot into the far corner past Peter Harrison much to the delight of the spectators at the venue.
“I have that shot from school days, so it is just to get in the position to pull off the strike,” Rousseau said after the game.
Meanwhile, Portmore coach Phillip Williams believed it was two points lost based on the chances they created.
“I think we could have pocketed all three points today but once again our inefficiency in front of goal plagued us.
“But after going down in the game so early, the maturity we showed to claw ourselves back was something positive.
“But there is a lot of room for improvement and we definitely have to improve if we want to achieve our objective of making the top six, and converting our chances is an area we have to work on,” he said.
Portmore started the better of the teams but it was Molynes who jumped into the lead when Shamario Dennis latched on to a pass and powered his shot past Benjamin Williams in goal in the 22nd minute.
Alex Marshall almost equalised minutes after but his towering header skimmed the bar before going out.
Portmore continued to push forward with Marshall at the heart of most of the good things they did and Rousseau put a simple header over the bar from six yards.
Molynes were a lot more positive after the break but it was Portmore who came close with Chevaugn Walsh and Rousseau.
However, the St Catherine-based Portmore found the leveller when Rousseau picked up the ball 22 yards out and beat Harrison with a low, hard shot in the 57th minute.
From thereon it appeared there would only be one winner as Portmore kept their opponents in their final third for much of the remainder of the game but could not find that moment of quality to finish their opponents off.
Nevertheless, Molynes coach Alex Thomas thought it was a good point.
“I am not disappointed. We needed the three points but we finished the round positively by getting a point, which pushes us up in the table,” he said.
Both teams remained in the positions they were in before the game. Portmore, with 17 points in eighth spot, moved within a point of Waterhouse in seventh.
Molynes stayed 12th with 12 points, one point off Vere.