Vere celebrate first points of new season
Published:Monday | September 23, 2024 | 12:10 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Vere United coach Lenworth Hyde said losing was not an option when they took the field for the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) game against Molynes United at Sabina Park yesterday and his players went on to produce a good performance in a 3-1 victory.
Goals from Roshawn Oldfield (11th), Denzel McKenzie (24th), and Saqlain Waul (94th) ensured the first points of the campaign for the Clarendon-based club and although he was not fully satisfied with the performance, Hyde said it was important to get off the mark.
“Coming off a loss, we were hell-bent to get on the points table. Some of the players played in the Manning Cup (for Mona) yesterday, and so there were cramps, and we had to take out some of them. But they did what was asked of them, and we think we deserved this victory,” he said.
He admitted, though, that there are elements of their game that they need to improve.
“We have things we have to tweak, but the more we play, the more confident we will get as the chemistry will build more. So we are looking forward to the season,” he added.
Vere were off to a brisk start and created some early problems for the Molynes team. However, Molynes slowly came into their own and had a couple openings themselves that they failed to make the most of.
Vere took the lead when Oldfield beat goalkeeper Joshua Clarke with a shot from the top of the area.
That lead did not last long as two minutes later, Vere goalkeeper Skakur Adair could only parry Jevaughn Brown’s vicious low strike, and Jermy Nelson fired into the roof of the net from three yards out.
Moments later, Josiah Daniel went close to restoring Vere’s advantage, but he could not get past Clarke after breaking through.
However, Vere got back in front in the 24th minute. Daniel turned his marker down the right side before setting up McKenzie, who placed the ball past Clarke in goal.
Early in the second half, Jason Wright should have equalised for Molynes but inexplicably, he put the ball wide of the target.
However, the striker set up Tyrique Wilson with an even easier chance a few minutes later, but Adair was equal to the task.
Molynes then took control and had their opponents on the defensive for most of the half but found the Clarendon defence hard to break down. Odane Samuels should have scored for Molynes with less than ten minutes to go, but he could not steer his header on target from three yards out.
After withstanding sustained pressure for the majority of the second half, Vere broke away on a counter, and Waul fired a low shot inside Clarke’s near post to secure the three points in injury time.
Molynes coach Jermaine Thomas said apart from starting slow, they were not efficient in front of goal
“It’s the first game, but when you look at how we performed, I thought we were very poor in front of goal. We were on the back foot and were always late and were not pressing as we ought to,” he said.