August Town relegated

Rasbert Turner, Sports Writer

August Town Football Club said goodbye to Premier League football as Portmore United confirmed their spot for next season, as penultimate round action in the Digicel Premier League ended yesterday.

Clarendon's Sporting Central Academy kept their hopes alive while condemning August Town to the drop, with a 3-0 home win at Brancourt.

With one round left, August Town, who are relegated for the second time in three seasons, remained at the bottom of the 12-team standing on 36 points, while second from bottom Sporting advanced to 40.

Arnett Gardens improved their chances with an important 1-0 win over Humble Lion. Both teams now have 42 points, the same as Rivoli.

Two teams will be demoted.

Portmore continued their grand resurgence under recently appointed coach, Neville 'Bertis' Bell, to also win at home, beating Rivoli United 1-0 to move to 46 points.

The Brancourt encounter, which was very important for both cellar dwellers, needed to win to stand a realistic chance of retaining their place in the nation's elite league.

Both teams played an attacking brand of football for most of the first half and got chances, but failed to score due to faulty finishing.

Things changed in the 33rd minute when Levaughn Williams scored to make it 1-0, a result that lasted the half.

defensive mode

When the game restarted, the Sporting Central aggregation started in a defensive mode.

This allowed August Town more space and Daniel Shaw, Nicholas Smith, Jamalie Richards and Akeen Thenstead combined to make inroads, but they could not score a goal.

Sporting, however, had more luck and got their supporters cheering for a goal again in the 55th minute when Williams started a build-up and laid off a pass to to Jevaughn Watson. The latter relayed the ball to François Swaby, who slotted home to make it 2-0.

Buoyed by the additional comfort in the scoreline, Sporting started to dominate with cohesive play on and off the ball and were duly compen-sated when Watson blasted home his second goal, from close range, in the 69th minute, to complete the rout.

"We came here this evening knowing we had to win to stay in the league. However, we failed to score and indiscipline crept into our game, so we lost, " said Dwight Morgan, August Town's assistant coach.

Vassell Reynolds, Sporting Central's coach, praised his team.

"The team's objective was to win the match and we did. This will keep us in the league, hopefully," added Reynolds.

In top six action, two goals by Dino Williams and another from Delroy Ellis gave Village United a 3-0 win over St Georges Sports Club; while Boys' Town won 4-3 over Tivoli Gardens in a mid-afternoon thriller at Collie Smith Drive.