Two-faced Village fail to hold advantage

 Nodley Wright, Gleaner Writer

The two faces of Village United were on show on Sunday as they played to a 2-2 draw with Benfica in their Digicel Premier League football match at Drax Hall and, in the process, earned their first point on the road for the season.

In racing to a 2-0 lead, Village United showed that when focused they can be the equal of any team in the league when attacking. On the other side, sometimes brainless lapses in defence saw them conceding two goals and draw in a match they had every reason to win.

Exciting young forward

The exciting young forward, Dino Williams, put Village ahead in the 21st minute, before captain Troy Smith fired them further ahead in the 47th minute. Carlington Smith, formerly of Portmore United, pulled Benfica back in the game before substitute Glendon Jones equalised in the 90th minute.

"Poor concentration was responsible for this result," a disappointed Marvin

Tate said, after witnessing his team throw away a two-goal lead.

"We relaxed a bit after the second goal. We were backpedalling and allowed Benfica to come at us; but we had enough chances to have won the game, we just got lax in defence," he added.

Benfica's Alfred Barnett was also of the view that his team allowed three points to slip through their grasp.

"We should have gotten three points," said Barnett, adding that his team was too friendly.

"Village and ourselves are friends so maybe they were being friendly. Half-time I told them they were giving too much space to Village. We also used a more attacking formation which worked for us," he explained.

Village United had the better play in the first half, which saw the fans being treated to a display of attacking free-flowing football.

Digicel Premier League summary after the fifth round of matches on Sunday

St Georges 1 Portmore 1

GOALS: St Georges - Dever Orgill 54th; Portmore - Tremaine Stewart 69th

Benfica 2 Village 2 at Drax Hall

GOALS:
Benfica - Carlington Smith 52nd, Glendon Jones 90+; Portmore United -
Ricardo Cousins 48th; Village Dino Williams 21st, Troy Smith 47th

Arnett Gardens 0 Sporting Central Academy 2 at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex

GOALS: Sporting Central - Onekie Ford 36th, Kaydian Wynter 63rd

Harbour View 1 Waterhouse 1 at Harbour View Mini Stadium

GOAL: Harbour View - Andre Fagan 38th; Waterhouse - Dicoy Williams 9th og

Boys' Town 0 Reno 0 at Collie Smith Drive

Standings

Standings in the Digicel Premier League after Sunday's fifth round of matches

(Tabulated under Teams, P-Play, W-Win, D-Draw, L-Lose, GF-Goals For, GA-Goals Against, Pts-Points)

TeamsPWDLGFGAGDPTSPortmore531184410Waterhouse531184410Boys'
Town531163310Tivoli43018269Reno52125237Sporting52127527H
View52125507Arnett521247-37Benfica5212710-37Village5122611-55Humble
Lion401315-41St Georges5014512-71

Tomorrow's matches

Portmore vs Humble Lion

Reno vs Harbour View

Sporting vs Benfica

Tivoli vs St Georges

Village vs Boys' Town

Waterhouse vs Arnett

(Home teams named first)