XAVIER Gilbert, the Waterhouse FC women’s head coach, believes prolonged pressure from his team meant it was just a matter of time before they overwhelmed stubborn Cavalier FC in Saturday’s JFF/Lascelles Employees and Partners Credit Union Premier League final.

Shantel Bailey opened for Waterhouse in the 23rd minute at Waterhouse Stadium, but Cavalier levelled through a successful penalty kick from Captain Chrisann Roberts only two minutes later.

Despite dominating the rest of the way, Waterhouse could not find another goal on a heavily grassed, but uneven surface until Tasheka Small found the net via a deflection in stoppage time for the 2-1 victory.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that we had to leave it this late, but credit must be given to the opponents too,” Gilbert told the Jamaica Observer during a post-match interview on Saturday.

“In the second-half we came to life and it was just sustained pressure and it was a matter of time before we scored. It kind of knocked the wind out of them.”

Gilbert noted Cavalier’s rigid defensive set-up for this encounter after his team hammered them 7-0 and 6-0 earlier this season, but he also knocked his players for a complacent approach.

“They [Cavalier] weren’t playing an open game, we were moving the ball too slow, and the mindset of the players [because of previous wins]. They [Cavalier] were much more organised, and I’m not surprised they are here because they have quality players. They have talent, but [are] inexperienced at this level, so we had the edge there,” the Waterhouse coach explained.

After taking all three women’s titles – including the knockout competition and midseason fina l— up for grabs this season Gilbert conceded that the only blemish was the first-leg loss to Olympic Gardens in the semi-final two-way play-off.

“It was a good season, and credit must be given to the players because they did what they had to do to ensure they won all three titles on offer.

“I was hoping we could go all season undefeated, but we lost the first-leg semi-final 1-2 to Olympic, though we avenged that defeat in the second leg,” he said.

Rudolph Speid, technical director of Cavalier, credited his players for marching to the final in only their first Women’s Premier League season, and for a gutsy show against a vastly more experienced team.

“We knew we couldn’t match up woman to woman so what we did was to play a lot more disciplined. We got players in the spaces at the right time — whenever they swarmed forward. Our intention was to keep the game close for as long as possible and see if we could win it.

“We are very elated with our programme, and we’re very happy the club was able to do this. This is our first year in the Premier League and almost all the players we have are teenagers. We are a little bit disappointed, but it’s something we can live with because we can see we made a very good effort.

“We got bad beatings from Waterhouse but the girls went back and worked very hard and you could see that we were much more structured and harder to break down,” Speid told the Observer.