FORMER top-flight powerhouse Portmore United advanced to the quarter-finals of the Flow Champions Cup Knock-out football competition after blanking Barbican FC 2-0 in yesterday’s second-round game at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Bowl.

Mark Alves’s 11th-minute strike was followed by another from Javon East in the 21st to give Portmore United the win.

Barbican, newly promoted to the Premier League, are not considered amongst the best in the nation’s top division.

But Portmore’s coach Linval Dixon, whose team was relegated last season, took some satisfaction from beating a club playing in the highest tier.

“It feels really good to win and the team played really well. Barbican are not one of the top teams there, but they’re still a Premier League team so that’s good. We want to continue improving and our goal is to return to the top. We should have scored more goals and our physical fitness needs to get better, but we kept a clean sheet,” he said yesterday.

Junior Francis, the Barbican coach, said his team paid the price for a slow start to the encounter.

“In the first half we were flat and Portmore captalised on it. They got the early goals and though in the second half we tried, we just couldn’t make it,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Earlier, Portmore took control of the first period after sprinting to a 2-0 lead.

The visitors then consolidated the advantage in the second half, defending with resilience as Barbican hunted a way back into the game.

That led to a mostly dull half of football, as, while Portmore sat back enjoying their lead, Barbican lacked the attacking punch to seriously trouble their opponents’ defence.

The best moment came for the hosts in stoppage time when Shavon Charlton’s low shot was pushed wide by Donan Atkinson diving to his left.

Also yesterday, Sporting Central Academy clipped Granville FC 1-0 at the Granville Community Centre.