Vere United claimed their first big scalp of the truncated Jamaica Premier League (JPL) season when they clipped Portmore United 1-0 at the University of the West Indies (UWI)-Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence yesterday.

Though they were made to chase for most of the game, Vere United struck when it mattered most through Lamard Neil’s 67th-minute goal to snare all three points.

The win saw Donovan Duckie’s Clarendon-based team jump from eighth to fifth on four points, while Portmore United slipped to sixth on three points.

Duckie, who holds no real expectations of his Vere United team for the shortened season, powered by Digicel, is pleased that his players continue to surprise.

“I am not too concerned with the points because this is a long term project and I’m concerned about us doing the right things consistently. In order to play Portmore United today (yesterday) we had to be tactical and like I said I’m not concerned about the points but we have set objectives where we have to surprise ourselves and we did that, so credit to the players,” Duckie told reporters in a post-game interview.

His counterpart Ricardo Gardner lamented his teams lack of decisiveness in the final third.

“I think we moved the ball well up the field but I think when we get there the end product could have been a lot better; we could have had some better crosses into the box and we could have also defended the goal better than we did,” he reasoned.

Portmore United using a high press tactic, settled first and pegged back Vere United inside their quarters which allowed them to get a few stinging shots off, but all were charged down by the defence.

Vere soon found their footing and they too fired a few warning shots to signal their intentions in the early exchanges.

From there, the game was played in the middle of the park before Portmore United gradually asserted some authority to dictate proceedings in the closing stages of the half, as Vere struggled to cope with the pace at which they were playing.

The one way traffic continued on the resumption with Portmore United looking even more dangerous with each build up. However, they were again haunted by faulty service and lacked the venom to land a stinging blow.

That allowed Vere United to capitalise against the run of play when Ricardo Dennis slipped his marker and picked out Neil, who had enough time and space to easily fire past the advancing Kemar Foster in goal for Portmore United.

Portmore United tried desperately to pull one back, but found Vere United giving nothing away in the closing stages, and as such were left to lick their wounds at the end.

Teams: Vere United — Kadeem Davis, Ricardo Campbell, Kenroy Lumthen, Alton Lewis, Javier Brown, Ricardo Dennis, Lamard Neil, Courton Wright (Tavis Grant 46th), Romone Plummer, Trevance Salamon (Ricardo Messam 65th, Rasheed Thomas 90th+2), Tyrese Harrison (Javel Ellis 28th)

Subs not used: Tyricke Harrison, Shavon Wilson, Dunsting Ghen, Rasheed Thomas

Booked: None

Portmore United — Kemar Foster, Damano Solomon, Alvinus Myers, Emilio Rousseau, Tajay Brown, Seigle Knight, Ricardo Morris, Demario Phillips, Raffique Bryan (Revaldo Mitchell 77th), Nicholas McArthur (Javick McFarlane 65th), Omar Reid (Shande James 65th)

Subs not used: Eric Edwards, Antonio Biggs, Jevoun Bascoe, Zain Hylton

Booked: Brown (42nd), Morris (84th)

Referee: Andre Farquharson

Assistant referees: Stephanie Yee Sing, Having Carvalho

Fourth official: Alexi Perry

Match Commissary: Anthony Gibbs

— Sherdon Cowan