CATHERINE HALL, St James — Former champions Montego Bay United (MBU) ended their longest winless streak to start a Red Stripe Premier League season after beating promoted Sandals South Coast 3-1 at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Sunday.

Lesly St Fleur scored twice in the first 10 minutes and Odane Nish came off the bench to score a second time when he secured the points deep into time added, as the two-time champions got maximum points for the first time this season after going winless in four games where they earned just one point.

MBU had lost their first three games of the 2012-13 season, their previous longest streak without a win to start the Premier League.

The loss extended Sandals South Coast’s wait for a first-ever win in the Premier League to five games and frustrated coach Aaron Lawrence, after they had drawn their last two games and appeared poised to claim their first scalp.

Carvel Blake’s goal just before half-time, cutting the deficit to one at 2-1, had given the Westmoreland-based club a big lift and they started the second half as the better team, attacking MBU in numbers.

Predictably the mood was different in each camp after the final whistle but Lawrence refused to give up, saying his team is in fact getting better despite the results not falling their way.

“We got opportunities but we were not tracking and lost focus in the defence; but (we) were better offensively and we were not supposed to be so bad,” a defiant Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer.

He said the breakdown came “in the midfield and the mistakes led to goals and we just never covered well”.

“We are still improving as we are creating more chances to score. (We) looked more purposeful going forward but that’s part of the game,” he added.

Despite winning for the first time, MBU’s Rod Underwood said he thought his team had “turned the corner” against UWI FC a week prior when they lost 0-3.

Underwood argued that but for two goalkeeping mistakes in the first eight minutes that saw them go down 0-2 very early, they were level with the fast-starting UWI FC.

The big difference on Sunday, he said, was “chances finished and we were tighter as a defensive unit” but he admitted that giving up a goal late in the first half “changed the complexion of the game. If we go in 2-0 I don’t think they would have come at us in such numbers and staying high the entire time, but we did a good job of managing it and stayed composed”.

An injury to their reliable starting goalkeeper Obrien Vennor in their draw against Cavalier at Frome the previous weekend did not help Sandals South Coast, as MBU took full advantage of Junior Stewart, who was making his first start for them since the regular season of the Western Confederation last year.

St Fleur, who missed all of last season and was only playing his third game of the season, gave the smallest crowd of the season a lot to cheer about with two well-taken goals in the first 10 minutes, to rock Sandals South Coast back on their heels.

The speedy Bahamian international sent MBU ahead in just over 80 seconds into the game when he attacked down the left flank and fired past Stewart into the far corner of the goal for his first goal of the season.

He doubled the advantage in the 10th minute when he caught the Sandals South Coast defence flat-footed and appealing for off side, and lifted the ball over the head of the advancing Stewart from outside of the 18-yards area.

To their credit, Sandals South Coast did not drop their heads and launched a series of attacks, but found the MBU defence — marshalled by national representative Ladale Richie and John Barrett — tough to breach.

Anthony Marks, one of the several new players signed by MBU this season, wasted yet another good scoring chance in the 38th minute as, after some hard work, he had a clear run at Stewart but punched the ball well clear of the target.

Sandals South Coast breathed some life into their game as two minutes into stoppage time in the first half, Blake was first to a blocked shot by the MBU custodian Jacomeno Barrett and hit it into the unguarded goal.

Only a goal down, Sandals South Coast came out in the second half and brought in the hard-running striker Dervin Campbell to join Lenard Rankine, who had come on late in the first half to lead their attack.

The MBU defence was equal to everything that Sandals South Coast threw at them and then Nish, who had replaced Marks in the 59th minute, killed off the game with almost the last kick in the contest.

Veteran midfielder Jermaine Woozencroft, who had his first start of the season and had a quiet second half, produced a fine individual work on the left side, beating three Sandals South Coast players before crossing the ball to Nish on the edge of the six-yard box, and with time to turn he fired the ball past Stewart.