CATHERINE HALL, St James — Montego Bay United (MBU) outclassed and outplayed an under par Tivoli Gardens team 2-0 in their Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) 19th-round match at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Monday night.

Midfielder Dwayne Ambusley scored his second RSPL goal and first in five years, while Dino Williams extended his league-leading tally to 14, both in the first half as MBU regained the lead in the points’ table, on goal difference over Portmore United, both teams on 37 points.

Montego Bay United’s goal-difference is a healthy 20, compared to Portmore United’s nine.

On Monday night, the home team beat Tivoli Gardens for the second time this season and for the fifth time in their last eight meetings dating back the last three seasons, as Christopher Bender conceded his team was outplayed.

“I thought our confidence was low, we did not play with enough confidence,” Bender told the Jamaica Observer.

Their lack of confidence, he said, was evident in how they conceded the two goals in the first 28 minutes when MBU threatened to run away with the game.

“We gave them too much respect in terms of space and time in mid field,” Bender said. “They were having too much time on the ball, but we made an early change and it paid off as Rohan Reid made a difference, not doing anything more than talking and closing down spaces and we looked better in second half.”

Bender said if they had taken a chance just after MBU’s first goal, things could have been different. “We got a chance to level and that could have changed the game for us from there.”

The problems for his team, he said, are not in just one area of the field but all over. “The team was not looking well in front of goal, we were too hesitant when we got the chances to kick at goal, we had no belief,” he said, adding: “We improved in the second half but not enough to trouble the Montego Bay team.”

The absence of the influential Junior Flemmings, who is off to the MLS Bender said, had a major impact on the team. “What he would have brought to the team is the confidence moving the team forward and holding up space in the middle.”

MBU’s assistant coach Dillon Thelwell was magnanimous in his description of the one-sided game. “This was not an easy win, Tivoli Gardens played well but we used our strength which is speed and got three points.”

Despite several scoring chances in the second half MBU failed to add to the first- half strikes and Thelwell said the changes “affected the second half as players took too long to settle”.

Ambusley, who had missed the previous game, a 0-0 draw against Cavalier a week earlier, gave the good sized crowd of mostly MBU fans something to cheer for as in the 12th minute, his left-footed chip from outside the area, floated over the head of Tivoli Gardens goalkeeper Edsel Scott and lodged into the top far corner of the goal.

It was the midfielder’s first goal since a 6-0 thrashing of Highgate United in a matchup between the then promoted teams at the same venue in the 2011-12 season.

Ambusley told reporters he was “delighted” with the goal that he dedicated to his six-year-old daughter Shanice as a belated birthday gift.

Tivoli Gardens should have levelled the score two minutes later but goalkeeper Jacomeno Barrett, who had a good game, used every inch of his massive frame to get a fingertip to a flick from Shawn McKoy, tipping it over for a corner.

The game swung from one end to the other as Barrett had to go low a few minutes later to block another shot from outside the area, and at the other end, Scott made a double save to deny John Barrett on the line in the 21st minute.

The home team and Williams were not to be kept out for too long as less than a minute after Scott blocked a savage drive from the centre forward, Williams switched to the left wing and after being sprung by a pass from midfield, lifted a ball over the custodian with the outside of his right boot and into the far corner of the goal.

Scott was the best player for Tivoli in the second half as he stood bravely between his team and a wider margin of defeat, blocking Allan Ottey on no fewer than three occasions.

Defender Barrington Pryce was fortunate not to be sent off mid-way the second half after he dragged the speedy Ottey down from behind when the striker sprinted past him with only Scott to beat.