Portmore target 'available titles'

• Coach Lewis, team joyful after defeating Tivoli in end-of-round final

Jermaine Lannaman,  Gleaner Writer

Portmore United's head coach Calvin Lewis says winning the Red Stripe Premier League first end-of-round final is good, but they have bigger plans, with a number of other titles on the line this season.

The final, which was played at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Monday night, ushered in a new trend - Monday night football.

Portmore won 2-0, courtesy of a double from forward Tremaine Stewart, who scored in the ninth and 90th minutes.

Portmore for their efforts took home $250,000 and Tivoli Gardens $150,000.

Tivoli ended the match with 10 players as defender Dwayne Holmes was issued his second yellow card for a senseless challenge on Ewan Grandison 20 metres inside Portmore's half and on the left flank, in the 80th minute.

"It's a good feeling to win our first trophy of the season, and the hope is that we can carry on to win the available titles that are there, including the overall Premier League title," said Lewis.

"We have a relatively young team, with most of the players who played here tonight being under-21 players who have graduated up the ranks, and if we continue to improve at the rate that we're improving the future looks bright," he declared.

The other titles that Portmore can win are the second end-of-round final, the overall Red Stripe Premier League, the Jamaica Footbal Federation/Flow Champions Cup knockout, and the St Catherine Lincoln 'Happy' Sutherland knockout.

A fair-sized crowd came out to watch some high-quality football, but the final was not a classic, even though it provided moments of entertainment.

The first of such was Stewart's first goal.

Displaying good speed and a sense of awareness, Stewart was able to evade Tivoli Gardens' sweeper Kasai Hinds atop the area after receiving a perfectly weighted pass from central midfielder Ricardo Cousins. With goalkeeper Edsel Scott advancing, he picked his spot with perfection.

faulty shooting

Tivoli, try as they did, created chances upon chances. However, thanks to faulty shooting those promising moments were shortlived, and in the end resulted in disappointment.

This then provided Stewart, the former Bridgeport High Manning Cup player, with another opportunity to put the game away, and that he did in the 90th minute when, sent clear on the counter-attack, he lifted the pass over an advancing Scott to score.

"It's one of those things. We had a couple of injuries heading into the match, and to compound that we came out uncharacteristically flat," said Tivoli coach Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey.

"We gave a better fight in the second half, but we missed too many chances. We just have to shake off this defeat and move on," Bailey added.