Dunbeholden held goalless by Mount Pleasant
Leaders Dunbeholden FC were held to a goalless stalemate by third-placed Mount Pleasant FA in a lukewarm Magnum/Charley’s JB Jamaica Football Federation Premier League Playoff encounter at Drax Hall yesterday.
The St Catherine-based Dunbeholden came into the contest knowing that a victory would place them one step closer to promotion to the nation’s top-flight league, but they will now have to wait at least one more week to achieve the feat.
With the point they inched up to eight points, same as second-placed Barbican, but with a superior goal difference.
Mount Pleasant of St Ann remain in third place with five points.
Coming off a 4-0 over St James’ Wadadah on last, Dunbeholden would have made the trek to St Ann high on confidence, especially after edging Mount Pleasant 2-1 in their first round meeting.
After matching strides with their hosts in the early exchanges, the Michael Cohen-coached Dunbeholden took complete control of the contest, as they enjoyed a period of sustained dominance in search of the elusive goal.
Like a pack of hungry wolves, Dunbeholden camped out in their opponents’ half much to the appreciation of their large support base, but their hunt was fruitless as good glove work from custodian Babiande Evans denied them on a number of occasions.
On one such occasion, Evans, diving full stretch to his left, parried a shot from Orrett Richards and quickly recovered to block three follow-up shots in quick succession, in a goal mouth melee.
Mount Pleasant eventually broke the proverbial chains that pinned them down in their defensive third and almost broke the deadlock against the run of play, but veteran Devon Hodges muffed his chance in front of goal.
Dunbeholden, whose supporters surprisingly outnumbered their Mount Pleasant counterparts, maintained the ascendancy on the resumption, but again failed to find the elusive winner due to a lack of composure.
Like they did against Barbican on last, the Paul “Tegat” Davis-coached Mount Pleasant came to life in the latter stages of the game and forced Dunbeholden into some defensive work.
In the 75th minute, Shaquel Notice and Rohan Sewell combined well in orchestrating a decent build-up which ended prematurely with a speculative effort by Latroy Laing from outside the 18-yard box.
Their talismanic striker Kesslan Hall had his star effort from deep inside the box charged down by a defender on the stroke of full-time.
And Hall was presented with another look at goal in time added, but he was denied by a diving Geovannie Smith in goal for Dunbeholden, who did well to keep out his stinging right-footed effort.