MAY PEN, Clarendon — As far as debuts go, Humble Lion and their headline summer signing, Devon Hodges, will be hoping that there is better to come. Much better.

However, the most important thing is that they did not lose their opening game against visiting Tivoli Gardens, which left them with a loosely satisfactory feeling.

In some ways, though, this stalemate has the taste of defeat drizzled all over it.

Opening their Red Stripe Premier League campaign against a Tivoli team who had a largely disrupted pre-season, most of the patrons who packed the Effortville Community Centre on Sunday night came expecting Humble Lion, boosted by their new acquisitions to take advantage of their opponents’ “lack of fitness”.

Failing to get the job done will not necessarily call into question their ability to mount a genuine title challenge. Yet they will know that this was a missed opportunity, which might not come their way again.

As coach Alvin Shaw puts it, this Tivoli unit is truly up and running.

What will peeve the Humble Lion coaching staff, headed by technical director Craig Butler and coach Linval ‘Pala’ Wilson, is that they let the game slip from grasp after captain Wolry Wolfe — later ejected for two bookable offences — had given them a half-time lead from the penalty spot. Of greater concern, however, is the manner in which they, playing at home, had to hang on for a point from the very moment that Keammar Daley’s 53rd-minute dribble concluded with the goalkeeper, Damion Crooks, retrieving the ball from his net.

“With the experience and quality players that we have, we should have managed the game much better,” admitted Wilson. “Leading 1-0, we should have settled our nerves and just pass the ball around; let Tivoli do the chasing. Instead, we allowed them to dominate the second half.”

In fact, so commanding were the visitors in the closing stanza that their coach had no choice but to laud his players for their effort. “This was a good result,” said Shaw, who added: “As you know, we didn’t have a normal pre-season like most of the other clubs. But we retained a number of our players and that helped us because they are familiar with each other.

“We told them at half-time that we can’t allow Humble Lion to be the aggressor. We had to start winning the first balls and take the game to them.”

By switching the script, Tivoli were able to nullify the goal threat of Hodges, who signed from Rivoli United in the summer.

The burly striker, who also had a stint at Tivoli, put in a performance which his coach called “average”, but not a cause for concern.

“He has just recovered from a little thigh injury, so we knew he wasn’t at his best. Once he gets some games under his belt, everything will be good.”

“Yes, playing at home we wanted to win,” added Wilson. “But it’s the first game of season, and it was a very competitive game, so we will take the point.”

Take it they must, but there was no doubt that it was Tivoli, who left central Clarendon the happier side on Sunday night. “This is good for our confidence… and once we are fit you can expect great things from Tivoli,” said Shaw.