MAY PEN, Clarendon — Schoolboy Jamilel Hardware hit a second-half winner as Boys’ Town kept pace with the Digicel Premier League front-runners following a gutsy 1-0 win over Humble Lion at Effortville yesterday.

In another early result, Waterhouse spanked Benfica 4-0 at Drewsland.

At Effortville, both teams traded midfield dominance in a scrappy opening spell, characterised by Deamon Benjamin’s looping half-line effort for the guests and Denzil Watson’s stinging 18-yard grounder for the hosts.

But 16 minutes into the second half, Bridgeport High Manning Cup captain Hardware poked home his own rebound to give Boys’ Town a deserved lead.

Humble Lion responded with a triple substitution, but failed to make any real impact in front of a similarly luke-warm home crowd.

The ‘Red Brigade’, who were beating their Clarendon-based opponents for the third time this season, improved their points tally to 42, which could also be good enough to send them atop the tables depending on results elsewhere.

Despite the defeat, Humble Lion, who were losing their 11th game of the season, should remain outside of the relegation zone on 25 points.

But that should give coach Lenworth Hyde Snr no breathing space as his team looked nothing like the side which recorded four consecutive victories without conceding.

Boys’ Town were equally out of sorts, but always looked threatening at intervals, especially with midfield giant Oniel Thompson featuring prominently in both defence and attack.

They were first to develop a pattern and could have grabbed an early lead as Thompson came close with a lunging effort after breaching the offside trap.

The hosts, would, however, keep themselves in the game with some sporadic one-two forward passes, one of which fell nicely for Watson, who obliged with a stinging grass-cutter that Philmore Crumbie did well to stop on the second attempt.

Sixteen minutes in the visitors were rewarded when Hardware ghosted behind the defence to collect a neat chip-pass, then kept his nerve to tuck away his own rebound after the initial shot was blocked by Sawyers.

Humble Lion responded promptly with three successive substitutions, but while youngsters Treval Smith, Peter Brown and Julian Nugent did manage to inject some life into their game, the visitors were never in danger of losing the points.