UNCERTAINTIES abound at Wespow Park, the home of Red Stripe Premier League champions Montego Bay United, as the team is mired in a slump and their hold on a semi-final place has become tenuous.

Since December 28 last year, the team has not scored a goal and have slipped from leading the league to third place, nine points behind leaders Arnett Gardens.

The slump prompted club president Orville Powell to leave his spot in the stands at half-time on Sunday, as the team struggled against Tivoli Gardens on their way to their first loss at home since last April.

However, it’s too early to start gnawing at fingernails or pulling out hair.

A cursory look over the past few seasons, and even this present one, shows that almost all teams, from the very top to the 12th position all go through runs, whether winning or losing.

Montego Bay United’s tenure in the Red Stripe Premier League is also marked by either long runs of success or failure, and even last season on their way to the title, they had a run of 11 games where they won twice and lost once, drawing the others, never scored more than one goal in each game and had just four goals over the period.

Depending on who you listen to, that run may, or may not have caused coach Donovan Duckie to leave the job.

What’s the point though? Maybe this six-match run must be taken in context, and it is not yet time to panic.

The memories of sports fans are famously fickle, and few will remember that Arnett just ended an 11-game unbeaten run that included a record 10 straight wins; many chose to recall that there were rumours of coach Jerome Waite’s job being on the line, especially after they were beaten 5-0 at MBU, their last loss before being beaten 2-1 by Humble Lion on Monday night.

Humble Lion are on a run of their own now, dragging themselves out of the relegation zone to being within touching distance of the top four, but based on trends, that run could end soon.

Cavalier were the toast of the league in the first round as they held on to a top-two position for months on end, until a loss to Reno FC precipitated an 11 games winless run that ended on Sunday.

Waterhouse, one of the favourites to win the league, also had their dip in form and went five games without a win, before they righted the ship and are back in second place and looking comfortable.

So maybe it is too soon for the Montego Bay United management, players and fans, to start worrying, but certainly a few wins soon would save the fingernails and hairstyles.