A resurgent Harbour View recovered from a humbling 0-2 away loss to Arnett Gardens on Sunday to down neighbours Tivoli Gardens 1-0 in a Red Stripe Premier League, RSPL, midweek late kick-off, at the Compound on Wednesday.

The win has moved Harbour one step up the RSPL standing to fourth on 22 points, one more than Cavalier who dropped down one place down to fifth following their 0-1 loss to Sporting Central Academy away at Juicy Beef Park.

Ranique Muir ran on to a long looping ball from the Harbour View half-line that caught the Tivoli Gardens defence unaware. Muir then lifted the ball out of the reach of the advancing substitute goalkeeper, Davin Watkins, into an empty net for what turned out to be the winning goal of the match.

After their go-ahead goal Harbour View continued to withstand constant torrid pressure from the visitors to hold on to their tenuous lead. But this was made possible only by a tremendous effort from second-half substitute Damarley Oliver with a miraculous interception of a fierce goal-bounded, in-the-box-blaster, from Kemar Flemmings in the dying moments of the game that denied Tivoli Gardens a share of the points.

However, Tivoli Gardens have only themselves to blame for the shutout as the woeful tale of inept finishing continues to plague them although they played well enough to come away with something more than a defeat. Chief contributor to this was the goalscoring mid-fielder Weston Forrest. The former Norman Manley standout who is at present playing for his third Premier League team got the easiest chance of the entire match, a one-on-one encounter with goalkeeper Levor Williams in the first half which would have given Tivoli Gardens the lead after they had their hosts scrambling to stay alive from constant raids.

But efficient goalkeeping aided by poor finishing bought some breathing space for Harbour View to go on to come away victors.

This was a demonstration of the value of having a balanced team that can defend as well as attack as Williams brought off no less than five outstanding saves in the match to keep his team on even keel; one in particular in the first half from Flemmings.

This was in a period when the visitors had their tails up with the hosts struggling to find cohesion, the hard-kicking Flemmings let loose a torrid drive from outside the area that brought out the best in the diminutive goalkeeper who was forced to go at full stretch to parry the cannon ball around the upright for a corner.

Much of the first half was like this, at any, in favour of Tivoli Gardens. Harbour View, however, seemed to settle their nerves and returned for the second session more purposeful and defended much better against their voracious visitors to leave the ground with three valuable points that moved them up one place to fourth on the RSPL standing with 22 points displacing Cavalier 21 who lost 0-1 away to Sporting Central Academy.

Winning coach Andrew Hines said: “I must say hats off to a morale-boosting performance from the team.”

Playing against Tivoli Gardens will always be a competitive game and coming off a loss against Arnett Gardens it would have being something for us to dig deep within and show strength of character. The team surely did that with a win at home especially for the fans and spectators.

Losing coach Alvin Shaw felt a little bruised by the result: “It was not the result we expected judging from our all-out effort. As I thought we played really well with cohesion. But our finishing let us down and we just need to do some work on that aspect of our game to continue to garner better results.”

Harbour View – Levor Williams, Rosario Harriott, Christopher Harvey, Daminan Anderson, John-Ross Edwards, Nicholas Beckett, Dejanni Isaacs, Kevaughn Frater (Damarley Oliver 73rd)Ranique Muir (Kimani Bimingham 79th), Mckaully Tulloch (Ricardo Davis 90+1), Donovan Edwards

Subs not used: Michaud Barrett, Damion McNeish, Vasbert Harry, Shawn Dewar

Booked: Tulloch 45th

Tivoli Gardens – Deron Duncan (Davin Watkins 46th), Robert Williams, Fitzroy Campbell, Ranique Anderson, Kemar Flemmings, Rohan Reid, Lennox Creary, Weston Forrest (Jamoy Sibblies 76th), Keammar Daley, Andre McFarlane, Navion Boyd (Rodico Wellington 67th)

Subs not used: Andre Morgan, Shawn McKoy, Davion Garrison, Barrington Pryce

Booked: None

Referee: Valdin Ledgister

Assistant Referees: Garnett Page, Richard Washington

Fourth Official: Cavel Banton

Match Commissary: Garfield McDonald