A cheeky free kick by Junior McGregor highlighted Tivoli Gardens’ easy 3-0 win over a dismal Boys’ Town outfit in their Red Stripe Premier League match at the Edward Seaga Sports Complex yesterday.

McGregor, who has a growing reputation as “Shuttle Bus”, the dancehall selector, effortlessly placed a low free kick under a host of players that formed a “wall” and jumped in expectation of him trying to lift the ball over their heads as is customary.

McGregor scored in the 52nd minute with further goals by Elton Thompson and Colorado Murray in the seventh and 78th minutes, respectively, pushed Tivoli Gardens to third spot on 26 points.

It was the second time this seasson that McGregor was scoring a free kick as he curled in a beauty in Tivoli Gardens’ 1-0 win over Harbour View in October in the 88th minute, after coming off the bench.

McGregor, a former Denham Town High school star, said he deliberately went under the jumping players after getting the idea while watching South American football.

“I was watching some Brazilians on Tuesday and most of their free kicks were going under the ‘wall’. So I said to myself most of the times when I am going over the ‘wall’ it went a little too high. So I practised to go under the wall,” McGregor told the Jamaica Observer.

It was a well-deserved victory for a Tivoli Gardens unit playing without Jermaine Johnson, who was on the sidelines, as they stayed in touch with the leaders sitting just five points behind provisional leaders Portmore United on 31 points. Arnett Gardens are second on 30 points with a game in hand to be played today.

Winning coach Omar Edwards was happy for his team’s display, noting that they did enough to secure victory.

“It’s a derby and it’s important that we take maximum points at home. Going forward we still need to work on our offensive thrust as we created several opportunities and could easily have won the game by a wider margin,” said Edwards.

Boys’ Town’s dismal run continued as they crashed to their 10th defeat from 15 games to be firmly rooted at the bottom of the table on seven points and in dire straits.

Boys’ Town’s Head Coach Andrew Price looked a broken man, but believes once all his top players recover from injuries, things will be brighter.

“We have about eight players that are currently out injured for the last three weeks and what we have to be doing is injecting some youngsters from Manning Cup,” he pointed out.

“So we will have to continue to utilise these players until we get back the players that are injured and go into the January transfer window and get some addition to bolster the squad,” he added.

‘This is the best that we have right now and sometimes it doesn’t match up with quality teams like Tivoli Gardens. But I think they put in a good shift, and there are some positives I can take from the game,” said Price.

Meanwhile, Humble Lion and the University of the West Indies battled to a 1-1 draw at the UWI Mona Bowl. Ryan Miller gave UWI a 48th-minute lead with his league-high ninth goal of the season. Cory Hylton replied for Humble Lion in the 51st minute. UWI slipped a spot to fourth on 24 points, while Humble Lion are 10th on 15 points.

Teams: Tivoli Gardens — Nicholas Clarke, Shavar Campbell, Romaine Breakenridge, Rushane Facey, Nicholas Smith (Romaine Linton 81st), Tevin Shaw, Authur Walters, Ajuma Johnson, Junior McGregor (Howard Morris 81st), Colorado Murray, Elton Thompson (Donovan Dawkins 77th)

Subs not used: Lloyd Tyme, Trevin Garnett, Sean Coleman, Marvin Stewart

Booked: None

Boys’ Town — Shavon Wilson, Pierre McPherson, Wayne Ellis, Kurt Thomas (Patrick Scott 80th), Dean Edwards, Daemion Benjamin, Garfield Gillespie, Xavian Virgo, Tarrique Campbell (Shaquiel Bradford 27th), Javani Campbell, Kevon Wilson (Giovanni Palmer 60th)

Subs not used: Mikhail Harrison, Andrew Peddlar, Shevon Richards, Kenardo Smith

Booked: Ellis (28th), Thomas (67th)

Referee: Danean Parchment

Assistant referees: Nicholas Anderson, Ojay Duhaney

Fourth official: Veralton Nembhard

Match commissary: Uken Campbell