Humble Lion tame Harbour View

Nodley Wright, Gleaner Writer

Humble Lion, which last season just managed to avoid relegation, on Sunday made it clear that they will not be tame pussycats without bite or roar, when they defeated perennial title contenders Harbour View 2-1 on the opening day of the National Premier League.

Wolry Wolfe from the penalty spot in 42nd minute and substitute Oneke Ford in the 90th minute scored for Humble Lion, who came from behind, while Rafeik Thomas fired Harbour View ahead in the 29th minute.

It was a hard fought and sometimes contentious encounter, which saw Harbour View having the better of play in the first half where they justifiably took the lead.

The home team felt cheated when Humble Lion leveled from the spot, after what was viewed as an indiscretion by Robert Williams, who did not have one of his best days.

Harbour View came out with a vengeance for the start of the second half and bombarded the Humble Lion goal for the first three minutes, but goalkeeper Damion Crooks, with the help of his defenders, kept them at bay. Once they weathered the storm, Humble Lion were the better team as they moved the ball around intelligently with Wolfe - before he was violently removed from the game by substitute Lamar Nelson, who was ejected by the referee - and Michael Blygen, leading the charge.

With the game heading to a draw, Ford, who had replaced Blygen and continued the assault down the right flank, got the better of the valiant goalkeeper, Michaud Barrett, from an acute angle.

With little to aim at, Ford blasted the ball at Barrett, who had covered his near post. Barrett did well to block it, but could do little about the rebound, which was hit with equal ferocity as it deflected off him into the goal.

"I think the result is what we wanted, a good start to the Lenworth Hyde Sr said of the outcome.

Hard work

The positive result, he said, was down to the hard work done in the pre-season.

"It (the result) showed today how intense we trained, preparing in the pre-season and you saw it in the game today. The pressing was good, the movement of the ball was good, especially in the second half," he added.

Harbour View's Donovan Hayles, who rued the absence of senior players Jermaine Hue and Richard Edwards, was disappointed but felt that his team did not do enough to win the game.

"I am very disappointed because I would have hoped that we would have created more openings. We didn't, other than a free kick that was destined for goal. We did not really create many clear-cut chances that we could say we did enough to win the game," explained Hayles.

The deficiency in the creativity he said was largely due to the absence of Hue.

"A player like Jermaine Hue is very difficult to replace and while I must laud the effort, we did some good work in terms of the leg work and fitness, but the creativity was not good enough. With two senior players, including Edwards - who could keep the players calm - out, it was difficult," stated Hayles.