Adlam, Ford net satisfying goal

Richard Bryan, Gleaner Writer

Sporting Central Academy and Portmore United played out a tough 1-1 draw at Brancourt on Sunday, a result that did precious little to advance each other's ambitions in the Digicel Premier League.

However, the goals scored were particularly satisfying for the scorers, Alanzo Adlam in the 74th and Onike Ford in the 89th.

It was redemption for the two for different reasons. Adlam, who gave Portmore the lead, had left Sporting last season, but has had to play second fiddle to Steven Morrissey. His position at the top appears to be threatened with former St James High player, Allan Ottey, partnering Morrisey.

But with Morrisey tightly marked and unable to find room and Ottey missing the easiest chance of the first half when he failed to successfully lob into an empty net, Adlam rose to the occasion from his position behind the two, to poke the ball through a cluster of players and finally his former goalkeeping teammate, Jacomena Barrett.

Punishment

In the case of Ford, he was left out of the starting 11, apparently as punishment for the number of goal misses in the previous home game against Benfica. He came on as a substitute in the 69th minute and, in direct response to heckling from the home crowd, showed good composure to slot home Gregory Lewis' right-sided grounder with a minute left in the game.

Following the draw, Portmore inched to 48 points, mathematically now safe for a top-six spot. Sporting's point, their sixth in eight third-round games, merely pushed them to 38, continuing a difficult sequence that has seen a failure to notch an outright win in 10 games.

"I think it's a bad mentality we find ourselves in," president of Sporting Central, Brandon Murray, told The Gleaner, as he commented on the suggestion that earning a point against a top-three team was not an unfavourable result.

"We feel if we are able to draw games against the top teams then we have done well, and that is not the case as I feel we are good enough to beat anybody. And I would say this mentality is probably the reason why we are in the bottom six."

Linval Dixon, Portmore's coach, appeared reasonably satisfied with the result.

"We came here for three but we know we are not going to get anything easy in this round. Both teams really worked hard in this game. We did a lot of positive things in the game and probably should have gotten more."