A distasteful incident involving Reggae Boyz representative and Portmore United captain Adrian Reid could not dampen the spirits of the Cavalier supporters after their team surprised the reigning champions 2-1 in the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) match at the Stadium East playfield yesterday.

Cavalier's Girvan Brown scored in the 75th minute and substitute Claudius Blackburn finished off a sumptous move four minutes later to reply to Odoah Nickles' 55th minute opener.

Things got sour for some home fans however, when Reid, who was red-carded in the first minute of stoppage time after striking an opponent in the face in full view of the referee's assistant, hit a female spectator with a thrown projectile which resembled a pebble as he marched towards the players' quarters.

Police officers and security personnel had to intervene and simmer a potential firestorm as the victim and a handful of followers made their way to the dressing room to seek revenge.

Portmore's assistant coach Geoffrey Hewitt refused to delve into the matter in the post-game interview, citing that he was unaware of the off-the-field incident.

"I didn't really expect that from him, if he actually did it," he said.

Hewitt did, however, state that playing with 10 men did hurt the team's aspiration of stealing a late equaliser.

"We will discuss it afterwards. It was really bad going down to 10 players when under pressure," he added.

Meanwhile, winning coach David Laylor praised Cavalier's grit after coming from behind to get their first win since returning to

top-flight football.

"We are feeling good. We lost to Boys' Town last week and we decided we had to make some adjustments and going forward we will be playing more good football.

"The players showed character and good spirit. We have been grooming them over the season that if they go behind they should continue playing. That perseverance worked for us, hence the victory. I think we started tentatively and were afraid of making mistakes. I told them to just play good football and enjoy themselves and it worked," Laylor said.

After a largely dour first half that saw Nickles and Ricardo Morris missing lobbed efforts in respective one-on-one situations with Cavalier's goalkeeper David Mitchell, both teams lifted the tempo in the second period.

Portmore struck 10 minutes into the second half when the powerful Nickles found space on the right side of the penalty box and hammered a right-footer into the roof of the net.

Somewhat surprisingly, Cavalier's equalised when substitute Rasheedi Clarke's corner was headed into the net by Girvan Brown with 15 minutes to go.

In the 79th minute, Adjuran Brown found Blackburn with a glorious 40-yard pass, which the latter took on the run with a gracious first touch before completing a tidy slot past the advancing Portmore goalkeeper Kemar Foster.