Latest win puts Cavalier on brink
PROMOTED Cavalier FC are on the cusp of the Red Stripe Premier League’s second End-of-Round Final following their 1-0 win over Humble Lion at the Stadium East Field on Monday night.
Dellon Wilson was quickest on the draw in the eighth minute and fired home a rebound after goalkeeper Garth Heron failed to hold onto a David Alveranga 30-metre freekick.
The win pushed Cavalier to the top of the second round with 20 points, ahead of Arnett Gardens and Montego Bay United with 18 each. Harbour View, Portmore United and Waterhouse are both on 17 with only one set of matches remaining.
With lowly Highgate United to play next week, the David Lalor-coached Cavalier need only a point and have a foot in the incentive decider set for Monday, January 28.
“It is not a surprise. I know Cavalier can play football and we have been doing well and we have gotten a foot in right now and we will continue to play good football,” said Lalor.
He added: “I’m confident we have a good chance of making it to the End-of-Round Final, but football as it is; we can’t take it for granted.
“It was a good game and Humble Lion came out to play football and I believe they had the better of the game in terms of ball possession, but nevertheless, games are won and lost by mistakes and they made a mistake and we capitalised on it and won the game,” noted Lalor.
Meanwhile, Humble Lion’s poor round continued with their second consecutive defeat and their fifth from 10 matches to be on nine second-round points.
The Clarendon team played the last 20 minutes with 10 men after Omando McLoud got injured and with head coach Geoffrey Maxwell making his three substitutions by the 68th minute, they had to soldier on with a one-man disadvantage.
Maxwell pulled Omar Walters after 11th minutes, Mark Miller in the 53rd and Sean Coleman in the 68th.
“I was dissatisfied with the two wingbacks, not much crossing from them and they were not putting themselves in positions to take advantage of the weaknesses that I felt Cavalier had and overall, you can only look at this as a very hard loss,” said Maxwell.
“I believe we outplayed Cavalier in possibly 80 per cent of the game. They got an opportunity and scored and I thought we got two opportunities, but selfishness crept into the team.
“But this is football, you play well and you lose and you play bad and win. But overall, I was fairly satisfied with how we played. Finishing has been our recent problem as we are making the chances but not putting them away,” he noted.
In the overall picture, Cavalier climbed into fifth spot on 33 points, nine adrift of leaders Harbour View on 42, with Portmore United (37), Arnett Gardens (35) and Montego Bay United (34) just ahead.