HAYES, Clarendon — Molynes United made it three wins in a row to begin their Red Stripe Premier League season, beating fellow promoted team Vere United 1-0 in last Sunday’s football match at Wembley Centre of Excellence.

An own goal conceded by Vere’s Tashaine Campbell in the 23rd minute ultimately made the difference between the sides. The encounter was far from a purist’s delight — both teams seemingly extra careful not to give anything away.

However, it was a deserved win for the visitors who seemed more composed over the course of the 90 minutes, and appeared more coherent in constructing attacks.

In the previous encounter between the two, Vere were 4-0 winners in the promotion play-off competition weeks ago. Notably, it was virtually meaningless for Molynes because they had already qualified.

Yesterday’s defeat was Vere’s first in a competitive game at home in two years.

Molynes, who previously beat title holders Portmore United 3-0 and The University of the West Indies FC 3-2, stay atop of the 12-team standing with nine points.

Vere, who beat Portmore 2-0 before losing 0-1 to Waterhouse FC in a rescheduled fixture, have three points.

Molynes Head Coach Lijyasu Simms was glad to walk away with maximum points.

“We didn’t play our flowing football, but it’s understandable because we are the two teams promoted to the premier league. We knew it was going to be a dogfight coming here to Clarendon. At the end of the day we got the win, and that’s more important than anything else,” he told the Jamaica Observer during a post-match interview.

“In the second half it looked a little better, and we started passing around the ball after the half-time talk. We started to knock it [the ball] short, instead of playing long, and it worked for us. We got a couple chances and we didn’t take them,” Simms explained.

Michael Bennett, the Vere head coach, said his team — missing a few key players due to injury — lost its way from early in the game.

“I’m very disappointed because we can play a lot better than we played, but this is the game of football. We have to realise that you can have a bad day, and this was one of them.

“We lost our shape after the first 10 minutes of the game, and we were scrambling too much for the ball. The leadership on the field was not what it should have been. Hopefully we’ll get better in [upcoming games] because it’s still pretty young in the competition,” Bennett told the Observer.

Teams Vere United — Jovell Plunkett, Sean Coleman, Tashaine Campbell, Anjay Gayle, Michael Moreland, Ray Campbell, Javior Brown, Renoir Elliot (Christopher Randall 61st), Devroy Grey, Xahne Reid, Steven Henry (Zain Hylton 70th)

Subs not used: Shavon Wilson, Alton Lewis, Swayne Thomas, Zemario Sinclair, Kemar Shaw

Booked: Henry (48th), Brown (90th)

Molynes United — Leon Taylor, Sergeni Frankson, Mitch Wright (Devon Hodges 63rd), Troy Reid (Tajahe Dixon 67th), Nicholas Nelson, Keith Wright, Orane Ferguson (Akeem Stewart 90th), Jeremy Nelson, Kemar Seivwright, Damion Thomas, Tyrique Wilson

Subs not used: Bobiander Evans, Jermaine Reid, Andrew Peddlar, Tyrece Wynter

Booked: None

Referee: Odette Hamilton

Assistant referees: Richard Washington, Kemar Gayle

Fourth official: Leon Brown

Match commissary: Tracy Hackett

— Sanjay Myers