Lions move into top three
Humble Lions FC defeated Tivoli Gardens 2-1 at the Edward Seaga Complex. The team from Clarendon, who are on a five match unbeaten run, moved from fourth to third in the standings with 17 points, two points behind second-place Molynes and six adrift of leaders Waterhouse with one set of games to go in the first round.
Their coach, Andrew Price, says his team is growing from strength to strength.
“It’s very important we got three points today (yesterday), as you know the rest of the table is very tightly bunched and we want to keep near the leaders, so it was very important we got three points. We want to finish the (first) round strong. We have another game against UWI and we want to see if we can get three points there also and just continue to move from strength to strength,” he said.
Tivoli dominated their first half of the contest and had only themselves to blame for not going in front. Their best chance came through Stephen Barnett, who directed Treyvon Reid’s cross over from seven yards wide. Then close to the end of the half, Reid tamely headed into the hands of Dennis Taylor from six yards, with the goal at his mercy. However, three minutes before the break Andrew Vanzie, who came in as one of two first-half substitutes for Humble Lion, headed home Renae Lloyd’s free kick to put the visitors ahead.
After the break the visitors were the better team and created a number of chances. And after Courtney Hill and Andre Clennon both came close, Clennon made it 2-0 in the 74th minute when he swept home a loose ball from six yards.
Newton Sterling pulled a goal back for
Tivoli with a 80th minute header, but a resilient Humble Lion held out for their fourth win of the campaign.
“We started flat and had to make two forced substitutions because of injuries in the first half, but we weathered the storm and kept our composure and scored on the stroke of half-time. I told them we needed to finish of the game and go home with the victory,” Price recounted.
“We battled hard and got the second goal which was the goal that really cemented the victory. But we got a bit lazy in the last 10 minutes and gave up a goal we shouldn’t have. But we continue to work hard and we continue to demand of the team to find ways to win games and they are working to do that. They put in a real shift, as this is a tough place to come and get a result and we were able to get three points.
“But we have been spending a lot of time finishing with the offensive players, as goals win matches. We have been good defensively, as we are one of the teams that has conceded the least amount of goals and because of that we have been able to accumulate points. But right now we want to start finishing the goals and collect three points and this three points is a good tonic for us,” he commented.
Meanwhile, Tivoli (eight points), who were losing their second straight match, remain just above the relegation zone in 10th place, one point above cellar-dwellers, Vere (seven) and UWI (seven).