Portmore United coach Shavar Thomas says the pre-game plan to restrict Tivoli Gardens in their round two fixture of the Red Stripe Premier League on Wednesday worked to near perfection.

It was never part of the plot, it seemed, to be stylish or crowd-pleasing, but strategic from the first kick to the last for the St catherine-based club.

For the latter reason, Thomas admitted, the team was spot on in their 2-0 win over Tivoli Gardens at the Spanish Town Prison Oval, a result that put the defending champions on 27 points and six clear of nearest rivals Waterhouse FC and Arnett Gardens, both on 21 points each.

On target in the old capital where the leaders made it five victories in row were Rondee Smith (11th minute), getting his seventh of the season to be joint leading scorer, and national frontman Jovan East (40th), who registered his fourth.

While Portmore have been the highest-scoring team this season, they have been generous at their defensive end as well, but in Wednesday’s game gaining three points without conceding is more the stuff of champions, and for this, Thomas puffed up with pride.

“I am very happy that we got two goals and I am very happy that we kept a clean sheet.

“We pride ourselves on keeping clean sheets and playing team defence, but we have a lot more work (to do in that area) and we have a lot more games, but I am sure that at the back end of the season we will be keeping more clean sheets,” said the former Jamaica international.

The Portmore boss also boasted about the effectiveness of the game plan, which he claimed succeeded in unhinging a usually fluent Tivoli.

“Our game plan work because we wanted to stifle them (Tivoli) and not allow them to play… so what we worked on in training manifested in the game and I am pleased with the victory because we are adding points, and Tivoli is one of those teams that is close to us and it’s good to move away from them and the others,” noted Thomas.

Tivoli Assistant Coach Kevan Wisdom was obviously deflated with his team’s performance and the result.

“We came here very confident, however, we started the game very flat and there were so many unforced technical errors in the first 25 minutes, and we didn’t start to play well until we conceded two goals… we made some changes to the shape of the team to see if we could get back in, but it just didn’t work for us today.

“The performance today was more a mental thing than anything else and that is something we have to address going forward, we have to fix the mental fortitude of the players going forward. Today (Wednesday) we came out in first gear and we didn’t take it up a notch, so we will have to do an evaluation, take responsibility and come out for our next game with a better mental attitude,” he noted.

In other midweek games, Montego Bay broke their winless spell with a 2-0 shutout of UWI FC at the Montego Bay Sports Complex. Nazime Mattalie-Grant (46th minute) and Wade Daley (90+4) were on target; Harbour View (Tyreel Magee (78th) and Dunbeholden (Nickoy Christian 35th) drew 1-1 at Compound; While Waterhouse FC playing at home spanked FC Reno 2-0 spurred by a double from Tremaine Stewart (2ndand 87th).

Following the matches, Waterhouse soared to second on 21 points, the same as Arnett Gardens who were inactive yesterday. Reno fell one rung to 10th with 11 points.

Tivoli slipped to fourth on 20 points, the same as out-of-action Mount Pleasant, who occupy fifth for the time being.

Montego Bay United inched up to ninth on 14 points, while UWI FC dropped a spot to eighth on 17 points.

Harbour View and Dunbeholden held firm to the relegation slots in 11th and 12th places, respectively.

– Sean Williams