CATHERINE HALL, St James — Defending champions Cavalier FC and Montego Bay United (MBU) played out a 1-1 result in the Jamaica Premier League game at Montego Bay Sports Complex as the first round came to an end.

Both coaches claimed periods of dominance in the rescheduled encounter.

Montego Bay’s Rodolfo Zapata described his team’s first half as “beautiful football” highlighted by “short passes”.

Cavalier FC’s Rudolph Speid said “it was all Cavalier in the second half” and they “dominated and should have won”.

The draw saw MBU move ahead of Waterhouse FC into third place on goal-difference, with teams on 25 points, while Cavalier FC took over fifth place on 23 points, one more than Portmore United who occupy the last play-off spot.

As if it was scripted, Shaniel Thomas who played a big role in Cavalier FC’s successes last season before moving to Montego Bay United, opened the scoring in the 27th minute. Cavalier FC equalised in the 59th minute through Ronaldo Barrett.

Zapata, who is in his first season as the coach of MBU, told the Jamaica Observer they were able to match-up against a good Cavalier FC team and it showed him they were heading in the right direction.

“It was a very tactical game. We play good football. We tried different ways of playing. But again, we are playing against the champions of the Caribbean Cup, so it was not a simple game. [The game] was a good test for us to see where we are and I think that we are in the right way, playing in this like this, we are in the right way.

“The first half was beautiful, we played the short passes, beautiful football. [The second half] was very tactical and at the end a point was a fair result for us,” he explained.

Speid said they made the necessary adjustments at half time to get back into the game.

“We should have won the game. In the second half it was all Cavalier and based on that domination, I think we should have got the win,” he told the Observer.

“The players responded well and came out [in the second half], and obviously, it was total domination. It was just a matter of we didn’t get the second goal, and we probably should have.”

Montego Bay got the first scoring chances when Cavalier goalkeeper Vino Barclett was caught out of his goal in the 11th minute but Thomas’s shot was blocked and Owayne Gordon missed the rebound.

Thomas was well placed in the 27th minute when wing back Deverow McKenzie, after playing a one-two passing exchange with Brian Brown, got the better of Alexavier Gooden. McKenzie crossed to the centre of the goal for Thomas to finish easily past Barclett.

Cavalier FC took over the game in the second half and were rewarded when Montego Bay goalkeeper Aaron Enill came off his line to block a shot but failed to get the ball under control, allowing Barrett to fire into the unguarded net.

Gordon had the chance to restore MBU’s lead soon after but dragged a shot just wide in the 63rd minute.

Kalie Auvray could have stolen all three points for Cavalier FC in time added on after he was left unguarded inside the MBU penalty area and was provided with an inch perfect pass from the right side. But with Enill at his mercy and with time to pick a spot, he blasted the ball high over the cross bar.