VISITORS Reno stole a march on last season’s runner-up Boys’ Town by defeating them 1-0 in their opening encounter of the 2011/2012 National Premier League at Collie Smith Drive yesterday.

After the hosts missed numerous opportunities to take the lead in the first half, it was Reno who capitalised on an open space in the 55rd minute after Renario Downswell took advantage of a lapse in the home team’s defence to put one safely away.

Boys’ Town’s inability to finish off the scoring chances was a source of frustration for coach Andrew Price.

“It’s kind of bewildering that you get so many opportunities in a game and you can’t even put away one chance. But we’re going to have to continue to work. We just have to get people in front of the goal to be more tenacious and put away the chances because we got several chances to put away the game and we didn’t do it,” Price said.

Earlier, Boys’ Town had started the season with a lot of steam coming close to the area several times but to no avail. Xavian Virgo excited the group for a few seconds after a short run on the right flank, but his left cross was wasted as it went too far south to have beeen effective.

Reno’s assistant coach Michael Graham, while happy for the victory on the road, was not totally satisfied with all aspects of the encounter.

“It was a hard-fought game. I thought we could have done better in areas of the pitch. Boys’ Town playing at home will always be coming at you… we stuck to the task and we came away with three points, which is good on the road,” he said.