Chapelton tick all boxes in maiden JPL win
Published:Tuesday | November 22, 2022 | 12:12 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
History was made by Chapelton Maroons last night: Their first Jamaica Premier League (JPL) goal and their first win of the season and in the top flight.
Rohane Brown’s 20th-minute strike was enough to clip many times champions Waterhouse 1-0 in their game yesterday at Stadium East.
Chapelton lost their opening three games of the season but their breakthrough finally came after an unexpected break in play because of the Reggae Girlz’s international window.
Victory was not only satisfying for assistant coach Tashana Vincent but a breath of fresh air after their early struggles.
“It is a relief because nobody wants to come week in and week out and lose. It definitely kills the confidence of the team, it leaves the coaches to question themselves whether or not they are making the right decisions,” Vincent said. “There were many firsts yesterday. We got our first goal, our first three points and our first win in the top flight.”
All the boxes were ticked in a game that Waterhouse could not find a way past the Maroons defence who held them in check throughout the game. After an unexpected break because of the Reggae Girlz’s international window, Vincent said that the players were determined to stop the slide.
“Knowing that we were going into the game with three losses, that was something the players kept speaking about all week. We need to get something out of this game. Even without us as coaches motivating the players, they were motivated to get something,” Vincent said.
It was a win that Brown dedicated to head coach Lenworth Hyde who said that the team’s intense training during the break was a means to reward him for work he has done, work that has seen the team claim their biggest scalp of the season to date.
“We trained very hard Sunday to Sunday. So we had to get three points to make our coach feel welcome in the league,” Brown said.
Waterhouse head coach Marcel Gayle said it was not the time to panic, he was adamant that their recent defensive issues had to be corrected quickly as they slumped to their third straight defeat of the season.
“We have been conceding some easy goals since the season started. And we have to fix it. I think we are not concentrating in long periods of the game,” Gayle said.
Chapelton vault out of the drop zone with the win while Waterhouse remain in 11th place.