Cavalier back to winning ways
Published:Friday | November 10, 2023 | 12:11 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
Last season’s beaten Jamaica Premier League (JPL) finalists Cavalier got their first victory of the 2023/24 football season following a commanding 3-1 victory over Harbour View at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday, courtesy of strikes from Christopher Ainsworth, Jerome McLeary and Jalmaro Calvin.
Cavalier lost their opening match of the season on Sunday when they were surprised 1-0 by Montego Bay United, but yesterday found their best form in their second match to climb to ninth in the 14-team table with three points. Harbour View are 11th with just a point after they drew their first match 2-2 with Arnett Gardens.
Cavalier, who looked the sharper of the two over the 90 minutes of yesterday’s match, got their first goalscoring opportunity in the 17th minute but failed to capitalise as Orlando Russell’s right-footed effort went wide of the target. The Rudolph Speid-coached team, however, managed to keep the pressure on Harbour View and were rewarded with a penalty in the 34th minute, which Christopher Ainsworth stepped up to easily slam past the goalkeeper.
In the second half, Cavalier were again quicker out of the blocks and McLeary pounced on a defensive error to send his team 2-0 up by the 47th minute. Now facing a 0-2 deficit, Harbour View pushed forward and managed to cut the deficit when Cavalier’s goalkeeper Vino Barclett failed to safely handle a cross inside the box and Omar Thompson powered home in the 62nd minute.
That joy was short-lived as, two minutes later, Jalmaro Calvin put the game to bed as he easily disposed of his chance, giving back the Cavalier team a two-goal cushion and eventually all three points on offer.
Speid said that his team was weakened by the absence of national invitees Kyle Ming and Shaniel Thomas, and the coaching staff had to come up with new plans which worked well in the end.
“Today. we were weak as we didn’t have our two best players in Ming and Thomas. So we had to come up with a new strategy, which eventually worked. If you noticed, we were resolute in defence and we were able to play them on transition effectively,” Speid stated.
Ludlow Bernard, head coach of Harbour View, said Cavalier, who eliminated them from the Concacaf Caribbean Cup with a 5-0 aggregate recently, were the better team.
“I think they probably have our ticket and it is as simple as that. The way they play isn’t attractive but it is effective and, up until now, we haven’t come up with the answer to deal with it. We made mistakes and they pounced on them. We have to be more efficient and, although in the early stages we had good possession, that doesn’t win games. We have to be penetrative and take our chances,” Bernard said.
Harbour View and Cavalier will be in action again next Monday. Harbour View will oppose Humble Lion at 5 p.m. and Cavalier will face Waterhouse at 7:30 p.m.