Boys' Town strike late to sink wasteful Waterhouse

Nodley Wright, Gleaner Writer

On a day when hardly anything went according to plan in the form book in the Digicel Premier League, Joel Williams was the difference between Boys' Town and Waterhouse, as his single strike gave the former the victory in the Drewsland fixture.

Williams' strike, which came in the 89th minute, created history for the Red Brigade as it was the first time in their 70 years of existence that they have beaten Waterhouse at their home venue.

The win, while it did not see them improve their positional standing, drew them closer to the leaders as they now find themselves a mere three points behind Tivoli Gardens.

"We were going through a very bad patch recently. We did some soul-searching and they are now playing with a lot of character, a lot of heart. We have never come up here and won a game so it is really good to break that jinx," an elated Boys' Town coach, Andrew Price, said after the game.

Price was also full of praise for Williams, who joined them in the pre-season and has now scored his second goal in three games.

"As this season progresses, Joel Williams continues to give us the type of effort that we need out of the midfield to support the forwards, and he came up all trumps a while ago," Price said of the player he described as one with a lot of potential.

Luckily for Waterhouse, they did not lose much ground as both Tivoli Gardens and Portmore United also lost, which means that they are still in third place, two points behind Tivoli and one behind Portmore United. Boys' Town are now just a point ahead of them.

But for Williams' strike Boys' Town always looked a step behind Waterhouse, even though the home team were not at their fluent best.

Waterhouse more creative

Waterhouse consistently looked more creative than Boys' Town and could have scored on a number of occasions but for poor shooting, desperate defending by the Boys' Town defensive line, and good goalkeeping by Philmore Crumbie.

After failing to make their opportunities count in the first half, Waterhouse continued in a similar vein in the second.

In the 55th minute Weston Forrest had a strong effort from distance which struck the ground just in front of Crumbie and bounced up sharply over his head and struck the crossbar. The lively Jonathan Williams collected the rebound passed to the right to Vincent Earl, whose shot from inside the box was saved.

Crumbie was called into action two minutes later when he did well to leave his line to deny Peter Keyes. Forrest was at it again in the 61st minute with a shot from distance which took a deflection and forced Crumbie to readjust to tip it over the bar at the last moment.

In perhaps the clearest indication that it was not going to be Waterhouse's day, Forrest steered a stooping header wide of the goal from about eight yards while unchallenged. It would have been a fitting closure to a lovely move, begun by the effortlessly brilliant Kenardo Forbes from inside his own half and ending up with Jonathan Williams, who provided the cross.

Both teams made changes as the game wound down, but none of them were able to alter the game until Joel Williams steered a rebound home and watched the net ripple before turning around to celebrate with his teammates, who awaited with open arms.

"I am not really disappointed at all, we did pretty well. It is just unfortunate that we gave up a goal in the last minute. I am not disappointed. Hats off to the guys; they played a very good game, a very disciplined game, It is unfortunate that we lost in the last minute," a relaxed Waterhouse coach, Baris Jonson, said after the game, adding that his team will just have to get back to the drawing board and prepare for their next match tomorrow.