Tivoli Gardens suffered their seventh loss of the Red Stripe Premier League season on Sunday when they were edged 1-0 by Portmore United at the Edward Seaga Sports Complex.

It has been a dreadful start to the season for the former champions who are now one point and one spot off the foot of the table.

A return of nine points from 12 games is woefully inadequate and to start the second round on a losing note only served to compound the problems at the west Kingston-based club.

Goal scoring is one of the biggest problems at the club at the moment and the loss of leading scorer Colorado Murray to Waterhouse FC at the end of the 2018-2019 season, left a huge hole in their strike force.

Head Coach Phillip Williams admitted that the missed penalty was the turning point in the game on Sunday.

“We played well up to that point. We got a penalty even though we were down to 10 men. That penalty miss was very crucial to the outcome of the game.

“As you saw, Portmore got their chance and they put away that chance and we lost the game one-nil,” he lamented.

It was the second game running that Tivoli ended a match with 10 players and the issue of discipline on the pitch now requires urgent attention, the coach agreed.

“Definitely those red cards are affecting the team. Right now we are in a very difficult situation and playing a man down can only make the situation get harder and I think it comes down to individual discipline but that is something we definitely have to talk to the guys about,” noted Williams.

Newton Sterling, Jermaine “Teddy” Johnson and young Trayvone Reid are some of the players being depended on to lead the line for Tivoli.

“We have been playing good football all season, it’s just that we have not been able to turn the good games into three points. Today [Sunday] was no different. We just need to put away our chances when we get them,” Williams said.

Glendon “Admiral” Bailey, who has previously led the club to championship glory, recently returned as technical director at the club.

“We have been working on a lot of things… ‘Admiral’ is here with us working on a few areas that he has pinpointed and we saw them bearing fruit in the game, but unfortunately for us, we weren’t able to put our good work into three points,” Phillips noted.

“The relationship has been good from the get-go and all [last] week, we have been working well together as a team, we just need the players to get their head in the game and execute on the field of play,” Williams reasoned.