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Erin Mitchell (left), Red Stripe brand manager, presents the Red Stripe Premier League end-of-first-round final trophy to Portmore United captain Ricardo Cousins (third right) at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday. Portmore defeated Tivoli Gardens 2-0. - Ricardo Makyn
Portmore United claimed the first trophy of the new season when they defeated Tivoli Gardens 2-0 in the first End-of-Round Final of the Red Stripe Premier League at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex last night.
The men from the Sunshine City, who ended the first round in second position behind Tivoli, came out on top courtesy of a brace from forward Tremaine Stewart in the 9th and 90th minutes.
The diminutive and skilful Stewart, a former Eltham High Manning Cup star, first scored in the ninth minute when he received a defence splitting pass from central midfielder and captain Ricardo Cousins, and with time running out returned to wrap up the match in the 90th minute.
Portmore took home the $250,000 first prize, while Tivoli Gardens pocketed the runner-up prize of $150,000.
"It was a good enough performance by us, and though not as smooth as we would have liked, we did what we needed to do when it mattered," said Portmore coach, Calvin Lewis.
"After scoring we did not sit back too much while in the second half we tried to be patient and waited for the counter-attack which resulted in the assurance goal," he added.
In what was the first Monday night football match of the new-look Premier League, both teams entered the encounter with bragging rights and the prize money on their minds, but it was Portmore who drew first blood.
Demonstrating patience and vision, Cousins picked up a pass in the middle of the park, and with none of his teammates in a good position waited for the right moment.
He found Stewart with a pinpoint pass and the latter left defender Kasai Hinds flat-footed before firing past an advancing Edsel Scott in goal for Tivoli Gardens.
The goal brought the contest alive and from thereon Tivoli worked overtime to draw level. However, on each occasion, they were denied by faulty finishing or timely defensive interceptions.
The most glaring misses were that of forwards Navion Boyd and Mitchly Waul.
Boyd first failed to get on to the end of a cross from Waul inside the six yards box with goalkeeper Maurice McPherson beaten in the 20th minute, while Waul failed to capitalise on a mis-timed jump from McPherson, also inside the six yard, in the 27th minute with the goal at his mercy.
It was more of the same in the second half with Tivoli taking the game to Portmore. The winners, however, continued to benefit from several mistakes in front of goal by Tivoli's attackers.
Tivoli ended the match with ten players after defender Dwayne Holmes was sent off for a second bookable offence following a rough tackle on Portmore's Ewan Grandison in the 80th minute.
"It's one of those things. We had a couple of injuries heading into the match, and to compound that we came out uncharacteristically flat," said Tivoli coach, Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey.
"We gave a better fight in the second half, but we missed too many chances. We just have to shake off this defeat and move on," Bailey added.
Portmore's Tremaine Stewart
