Tivoli Gardens FC thumped Vere United 4-0 at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at the University of the West Indies on Wednesday (September 22), to march into the semi-finals of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) football competition.

Stephen Barnett opened the scoring for Tivoli Gardens in the 18th minute with Travon Reid and Horatio Morgan adding to Vere’s misery in the 62nd and 86th minutes respectively, before Jermaine Johnson scored from the penalty spot five minutes into second-half added time, to complete the rout.

Tivoli Gardens will meet Cavalier in the semi-finals. Cavalier and Waterhouse advanced to the semi-finals, as the format of the league allows the top two teams after the completion of the preliminary stage, direct passage to the semi-finals. Waterhouse won the preliminary stage with Cavalier finishing second.

Tivoli Gardens advanced 4-0 on aggregate as the first-leg on Saturday at the same venue, ended 0-0.

On Wednesday, both teams created and wasted chances before the opening goal, which Barnett converted from just outside the six-yard box, after collecting a cross from the left by Devroy Grey.

Barnett, at the top of the 18-yard box, created problems for Vere’s goalkeeper Kadeem Davis, who had to dive full stretch to his right to prevent a shot from going into the goal. Davis was injured and had to be substituted, with Shavon Wilson taking over the goalkeeping duties.

Vere, facing elimination, stepped up the attacks towards the end of the half and at the start of the second and missed several good scoring opportunities that would have pulled them level.

Tivoli Gardens would increase the lead from a quick counter, with Reid outpacing the Vere defence from the middle of the pitch, to beat goalkeeper Wilson with a low left-foot shot to the base of the upright.

Morgan volleyed home his fourth goal of the season as he gave goalkeeper Wilson no chance from the edge of the six-yard box, after being picked out from a corner kick. Shavar Campbell was bundled over in the 18-yard box by substitute Gregory Cousins with Johnson scoring the kick from the penalty spot.

According to Tivoli Gardens’ coach, Philip Williams, the victory was achieved through his charges being very successful in front of goal. He said he is anticipating the semi-finals matchup with Cavalier.

“I thought that we did well in the first leg of this tie and today, what the difference is that we convert the chances that we created,” Williams said.

“Today, it was about decision making and the results that followed the decisions and we got everything right in terms of making the connection unto the passes and results to encourage the passes in those areas. Our conversion rate was high today, which we are glad for,” the Tivoli head coach continued.

“It’s a semi-finals matchup that we look forward to. Cavalier is one of the young, running teams and our programme has done an overhaul, so we have to play against the best for us to judge where we are at and I think Cavalier is a fitting opponent for us to test our programme,” he said.

Meanwhile, Vere’s coach Donovan Duckie also believes that the goalscoring conversion by Tivoli Gardens, impacted the result of the match, as he said that being in a must-win situation, they had to make tactical changes.

“There is a lot of positives and I was pleased with our game plan. We started on a good note and we matched them. We were very aggressive against them. I thought that after the first goal, we were broken, seeing that it was a questionable decision as I thought it was a handball and we are playing with inexperienced players so this will happen, but we have to pick up ourselves and continue to fight,” Duckie said.

“Kudos to Tivoli, they did well. The difference between both teams is that they were very clinical. We were dismal in front of the goal. It started from the first game and now we ended the same.

“It’s not a regular-season game. This will happen in a knockout game. We kept on changing, we made some changes, which were tactical as we went for broke and threw everything up there, but it just didn’t happen,” Duckie said.