Portmore move to 30 points

Richard Bryan, Gleaner Writer

Portmore United moved to 30 points and second place in the Digicel Premier League (DPL), their best position in almost two seasons, after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Humble Lion at Effortville Community Centre on Wednesday.

Andrew Vanzie's 48th-minute strike past a badly positioned Shawn Sawyers was the only spark on an afternoon when both teams fought hard with neither deserving to lose.

Linval Dixon's admission his side had to dig real deep to earn the points was by no means any consolation for the home side, who have been stuck in 11th place for over a month.

"It was really a (hard) game against a tough Humble Lion team, who we have never beaten before, and we came here to give a good account of ourselves and we got one goal and defended stoutly, which says a lot about the team," Dixon said in a post-match interview.

The glow from Hyde's early presence has clearly faded, and the team's last victory - nine games ago against Village - is a distant memory. The defeat meant he has lost consecutive games to teams he had coached to titles.

On the other hand, Portmore's last two victories have come against the two bottom-place teams. Dixon hopes a winning trend can develop.

"We have been playing pretty well, but the consistency is not there in terms of winning games on the trot, so three points today is really good for us," he said.