KO title, return of players boost Portmore
PORTMORE UNITED’S head coach Jeffrey Hewitt said they are elated to have won their first title of the season after beating Bodles FC 2-0 to win the St Catherine Happy Sutherland Knockout football competition.
Hewitt dedicated the victory to t he club’s l ong-serving chairman, Herman Ming, and his family and noted that now that their injured players have recovered, their form should improve in the Red Stripe Premier League.
“It’s the first title for the season and we are very happy to have got it, and I want to say thanks to all who have been supporting us, especially the Ming family, and this victory is dedicated to them,” said Hewitt, whose team won Sunday’s title match at Spanish Town Prison Oval courtesy of Tremaine Stewart’s double in the 34th and 69th minutes of a largely one-sided contest.
WELCOME WIN
It was welcome relief for Portmore, which had lost three consecutive matches in the Red Stripe Premier League. Hewitt said injuries were partially to blame for those setbacks.
“There have been some injuries, so we had about four players who have not played in over six games ... . [Injuries] have been contributing to our performances over the last few matches. But we are Portmore United, and whoever we put on the pitch must be ready to play, Portmore United’s coach Jeffrey Hewitt. but we are just glad that we got our [injured] players back and we are just getting ready for the next round [of games],” he said.
In Sunday’s parish knockout decider, Portmore controlled the match but found it difficult to score, even though they created a number of openings. Hewitt insists they must improve if they are aiming to win more trophies this season.
“I thought the Bodles team was really organised; they must have had some quality to reach the final. They knew us and it was evident that they did their homework. They did not allow us to play our free-flowing football, but we eventually broke through and got two goals.
“But I thought we could have done much better in front of goal and separate ourselves with a bigger margin. We created numerous chances, but we were unable to convert most of those. We got two goals and we are thankful, but still we have a lot of work to do in front of goal, and if we can convert half of the chances we create in the Premier League and domestic competition, we will be a force to reckon with,” he said.
Bodles’ coach Lenworth Gordon said they were outclassed, but gave up ‘soft’ goals.
“We went up against a good,-quality Portmore team, but gave away two soft goals and that was very hard to come back from because they didn’t give us any room to play, and they have quicker players,” he commented.