THEY came, they saw and they have conquered once again.

The St Ann marauders Mount Pleasant Academy continued their remarkable start to the Red Stripe Premier League season by dispatching another seasoned campaigner, Harbour View, 2-1 at the Compound on Monday night.

In a devastating two-minute spell, Cardel Benbow and Devon Hodges netted in the 51st and 53rd minutes as Mount Pleasant romped to their fourth win from six games to move joint top of the table on 13 points.

However, they are second on goal difference behind Portmore United, while Harbour View remained second from bottom in 11th spot on four points.

After brushing aside champions Portmore United and three former champions — Waterhouse, Tivoli Gardens and now Harbour View —Mount Pleasant are proving that they belong and will be title contenders.

Still, Head Coach Donovan Duckie remains grounded about his team’s chances and just wants to continue working hard and show improvement.

“The owners and the fans, the expectations are very high for them and it is hard to manage them, and the expectation. The players are very mature and every team in the competition must be taken seriously,” Duckie pointed out.

“We just want to be very competitive. We just want to make the top six and from there, history have shown that any team in the top, irrespective of their position in the early stages, they have a possibility of winning,” he added.

Meanwhile, Harbour View’s Assistant Coach Fabian Taylor noted that his team is struggling defensively after conceding a league-high 12 goals from six matches.

“We still have some defensive issues to sort out and as soon as we can sort them out and move forward we will improve,” said Taylor.

On a night when tributes and donations were made to the stricken Luton Shelton, Jamaica’s top goalscorer with 35 goals from 75 international games, oh how his former club Harbour View missed his services.

In six games the “Stars of the East” have scored just five goals, which is the second worst in the league, a fact Taylor lamented.

“We have been struggling over the last three years. We always have good strikers at Harbour View, but most always leave after a season or two. So we always have to be replenishing our strike force. It’s a work in progress,” said Taylor, himself a former national player and lethal striker for Harbour View in his prime.

“The players are upbeat same way. We haven’t been having a good season. We lost all our home games and we have to turn that around right now,” ended Taylor.

Teams: Harbour View — William Price, Christopher Harvey, Ajeanie Talbott, Andre Lowe, Richard Anderson, Nicholas Beckett, Odorland Harding (Timar Lewis 78th), Mark Alves, Tyreke Magee, Elton Thompson (Johann Weatherley 62nd), Shemar Nairne (Bebeto McDonald 82nd)

Subs not used: Christian Kluvu, Odane Samuels, Dario Stewart, Sean Fraser

Booked: Lowe (75th)

Mount Pleasant — Joseph Vargas, Kevin Graham, Ricardo Campbell, SueLae McCalla, Kareem Manning, Kevaughn Isaacs, Evan Taylor, Ronaldo Rodney (Romario Campbell 88th), Kemar Beckford, Cardel Benbow (Latvoy Laing 90th+6), Devon Hodges (Kesslan Hall 74th)

Subs not used: Kadeem Davis, Horace Sharpe, Ricardo Dennis, Jahmika Hutchinson

Booked: Ricardo Campbell (27th), Isaacs (49th)

Referee: Tyrone Robinson

Assistant referees: Jermaine Yeesingh, Lloyd Edwards

Fourth official: Kevin Morrison

Match commissary: Elaine Walker-Brown