Waterhouse FC unhinged Tivoli Gardens 3-1 on penalties to win the Flow Champions Cup for the third time.

But it was no easy victory in one of the most consuming finals in the history of the Champions Cup at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Monday.

Vice-president of marketing Donovan White was most pleased with the way things turned out. “By not having the tournament for a year was maybe a blessing in disguise. In hindsight what it allowed us to do is to go back to the drawing board with our partners the PFAJ and the JFF to come up with an exciting tournament that could energise local football in such a dynamic way,” he said.

“You can always look out for football to produce the atmosphere that we all witnessed in this the 2013 Flow Champions Cup tournament. There are a lot more things that we think we can do and we will continue to work to improve… for us all to enjoy and appreciate,” White added.

On field there were ample reasons for passion and tenacity that characterised the 22nd staging of Jamaica’s premier knockout football competition as the winners would pocket the sum of $1 million.

Juvaune Benjamin put Waterhouse in front with the game only eight minutes old after luring the goalkeeper away from his goal and then punished him for finding himself in no man’s land to the rapturous delight of their fans.

Bad boy Jermaine ‘Tuffy’ Anderson made it 2-0 10 minutes later, after the more than reliable Tivoli Gardens goalkeeper Edsel Scott was again caught out after failing to gather in what looked a regulation save from a dipping free kick when the ball eluded his grasp to find its way in his net.

This no doubt was to the chagrin of his team’s supporters. But as it turned out, that was not the end of the game. Tivoli were resilient and resourceful.

It was the second time these two fiercely competitive city rivals were meeting in this prestigious final of the competition and expectations were high before the kick off. But as fate would have it, Tivoli Gardens were again out manoeuvred by their rivals to the west albeit on penalties after full time and extra time had failed to separate them.

Waterhouse, suffering defeats by Tivoli Gardens in the teams’ last two meetings in another competition, were at each other from the opening whistle — one a wounded lion the other a confident Bull Terrier unleashed.

Waterhouse were the first to show signs of intent and had they succeeded with their early probing on their opponents’ goal it would have been one of the earliest goals to be recorded in the competition.

It was to even get better as the action shifted immediately and spontaneously to the other end of the field and it was now the Tivoli Gardens supporters who were in ecstasy with the response. However, from here onward with some inept refereeing, to say the least, from the man in the middle Tyrone Robinson, the score remained unchanged but laced with a number of yellow cards that were being issued, including a red which was issued to Waterhouse goalscorer Benjamin for two bookable offences.

Waterhouse went to the break with the score unchanged but somewhere between the final 15 minutes of the first half and the opening minutes of the second, they seemed to begin to lose focus, which appeared to give their rivals a serious look in as Rafiek Thomas reduced the deficit 14 minutes after the resumption.

The game became a testy and physical affair and Waterhouse went down to 10 players when goalscorer Benjamin was sent for an early shower.

With 11 minutes remaining, Tivoli Gardens struck immediately through Ranike Anderson in minute 80 to tie up the scores.

This was after Tivoli Gardens had lured the Waterhouse defence away to the left with some deceptive play to leave defender Anderson a clear passage on the right. He then latched on to a deft pass that emerged from the shadows on the left to punish goalkeeper Richard McCallum in a one-on-one situation. The teams, during the period, seemed content on holding on for a draw and await the additional 30 minutes of play.

The final 30 minutes produced the best football of the entire game as the players settled down to playing good football, but yet again this period failed to provide a champion and the over flowing stands and grounds of the Anthony Spaulding Sport Complex had to now await with bated breath the outcome from a penalty shootout.

When it was all over, Waterhouse raked in first prize of money $1 million, runners-up Tivoli Gardens pocketed $400,000, while losing semi-finalists will take home $200,000 each.