TUCKER, St James — Defending champions Montego Bay United continued to make full use of home field advantage after carving out a hard fought 2-0 win over Humle Lion in their Red Stripe Premier League first round game played on a wet and soggy WesPow Park on Sunday.

A goal in the first half from Cordel Simpson and one in added time from Fabian McCarthy secured Montego Bay United’s third home win as they stayed unbeaten at home.

It was frustration for Humble Lion, however, as they went down to their third straight loss as they stay rooted to the bottom of the tables on four points.

Linval ‘Palla’ Wilson, who was the man in charge yesterday, described his team’s loss as “just one of those days”.

MBU’s Carlos Garcia was thankful for the win, but said his team showed the effects of a long and hard game against Tivoli Gardens in the Flow Champions Cup Knockout game on Thursday, which they won in penalty kicks after going down to nine players.

“The waterlogged field did not help us at all, the players were tired but they showed an incredible effort,” the Spaniard told the Jamaica Observer.

Heavy rain overnight and earlier in the day left the surface muddy and water-logged in parts and made passing the ball difficult for both teams, resulting in a lot of long balls and high crosses.

Simpson got the opening goal from a high cross, but the central defender out jumped every one of the right goal post and headed the ball back powerfully across the goal into the far corner past goalkeeper Damion Crooks.

A mistake from Donovan Carey in the 79th minute almost gifted Humble Lion the equaliser as he miscued a clearance and the ball went off the top of his boots and behind him. The MBU defence, however, reacted quickly to avert any potential danger.

With Humble Lion pressing for the goal, MBU pulled players behind the ball and resorted to attacking on the counter and just missed adding a second goal in the 81st minute when Crooks acrobatically intercepted a cross from Allan Ottey that appeared headed to two unmarked MBU players.

McCarthy put the game out of reach of Humble Lion in time added on when he produced yet another sublime free kick, curling the ball from the right side out of reach of Crook and just inside the far post.

Teams:

Montego Bay United — Jacomeno Barrett, Donovan Carey, Ocarey Spence, Cordel Simpson, John Barrett (Ladale Richie-62nd), Jerome Haughton, Allan Ottey, Fabian McCarthy, Dino Williams, Ronaldo Rodney (Graeme Green-76th), Lesly St Fleur (Omar Gordon-86th).

Subs not used: Garen Downie, Jermaine Woozencroft, Winston Wilkinson, Kemiro James,

Booked: Simpson (70th), Carey (90+)

Humble Lion — Damion Crooks, Ricardo Campbell, Trevol Smith (Mark Miller-89th), Wolry Wolfe, Hugh Powell, Andrew Vanzie, Dwayne Campbell (Roberto Fletcher-46th), Jermaine Christian, Keneil Wolfe (Narado Brown-67th), Ajuran Brown, Ronaldo Christian.

Subs not used: Sanchez Lloyd, Jeffrey Henry, Denzil Watson, Sean Coleman

Booked: Christian-90+

Referee: Karl Tyrell

Assistants: Garnett Page, Sean Wright

Fourth Official: Valdin Ledgister

Match Commissary: Fitzroy Reid