Mount Pleasant Football Academy strengthened their chances of progressing to the second round of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) football competition on Sunday (August 8) when they stopped reigning champions Portmore United 1-0 at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at the University of the West Indies.

Kemar Beckford scored the winning goal in the 40th minute.

Mount Pleasant jumped four places in the points standing as they now occupy the third position on 11 points. They leapt Harbour View, Tivoli Gardens, Dunbeholden and Cavalier.

Habour View, Tivoli Gardens and Dunbeholden are all on nine points with goal difference separating them in that order with Cavalier on eight points. Harbour View, however, have played seven matches, with Mount Pleasant, Tivoli Gardens and Dunbeholden playing six, while Cavalier have played five.

The teams will play 10 matches in this first phase of the competition, which is being led by Portmore United, on 13 points from seven matches, with Vere United in second on 11 points from six matches.

Mount Pleasant took the fight to Portmore for most of the first half, creating some good goalscoring opportunities, which were thwarted by wayward finishes and good goalkeeping.

They took the lead after Beckford’s shot was parried outside for a corner by goalkeeper Kemar Foster, who had no answer when Beckford, inside the six-yard box, rose high to head in the resulting corner kick by Daniel Green.

ANXIOUS MOMENTS

Portmore pressed for the equaliser before the end of the half and troubled both the St Ann-based Mount Pleasant defence and goalkeeper Akel Clarke, resulting in anxious moments inside the penalty area.

The champions went close to scoring when captain Ricardo Morris, slightly to the right of the penalty area, crashed a free-kick onto the crossbar, which goalkeeper Clarke leapt in futile to push away.

Portmore maintained their offensive thrust in the second half and created numerous other chances to get the equaliser, but failed to convert through faulty finishes as well as good goalkeeping.

According to technical director Walter Downes, this match and the resulting win enabled Mount Pleasant to test their overall strength. He credited a combined effort by both the staff and players of the club for the performance in a match that started at 11:00 am because of the COVID-19 curfew guidelines.

“It’s just a way to graph our progress. We have come together like a lot of the teams, new with youngsters coming in and we haven’t had a game where we have won both halves. So we were looking to win both halves today, which we didn’t manage to do, but we won the game,” Downes said.

“When we look at the table and Portmore at the top, it was a good time for us to test ourselves, because we had a few injuries and a very early start to the game, so that was a big disadvantage for us, getting up a 4 o’clock and players coming into a settled team and having an opportunity to do well and I thought the team, as a group together, stood up to the test really well.

“The game changes came on, they came in and they did their job. What was required of them, they were vital for us as well, but from everybody, from the chef who was up at 3 o’clock this morning, preparing our food to come, to everybody who has come with us today, it has been a really big effort to come up against a top-of-the-table side,” Downes continued.

He stated that the players achieved the game plan of quickly closing down Portmore’s skilful players whenever they are in space and he believes that strikers Beckford, Green and Cardel Benbow all did well to maintain the pressure on Portmore in the first half while playing good counter-attacking football in the second stanza.

QUICKER PACE NEEDED

Meanwhile, losing coach Ricardo Gardner, credited his players with a good second half performance although he believes their transition from defence to attack was slow, which he said could have resulted in a better result had they quickened the pace.

“I didn’t think we started the game well, but I think we really came out in the second half and we made it a game, we played our game and unfortunately, we didn’t put one in the back of the net but we created a lot of chances, we hit the post once, but excellent second half from the players. I must commend them on that.

“We have to move the ball a little bit quicker but we also have to commend Mount Pleasant because they sat back, they made it difficult for us, but I think if we had moved the ball a little quicker, especially through the lines, we could create a little more. We moved it a little too slow around the back and spend a little bit too long around the back at times and not breaking the lines when it’s on,” Gardner said.