TIVOLI Gardens found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline in the Jamaica Premier League when they suffered their first loss of the season to Harbour View on Tuesday.

Despite not taking anything from the game, Head Coach Phillip Williams was not devastated by the result.

“I am disappointed that we weren’t able to get a point from the game but in terms of how the guys played, it is encouraging,” he said.

Williams revealed that the club was going through a transition phase, having lost two of their best strikers to other clubs during the transfer window.

“Tivoli is basically doing a repairing job right now. We lost two of the players that we were building the team around over the last two years, and we have some youngsters out there who have been putting in some good shifts and it’s encouraging going forward — but it was disappointing not to have gotten any points from this game,” he shared.

Williams admits it was a big blow to lose so much firepower during the window but is hopeful their replacements will get the job done when they get settled in.

“Two of our goalscorers over the past two seasons —Trayvone Reid went to Harbour View and Devroy Grey to Waterhouse — so those are two big losses for us.

“We brought in Warner Brown who has been filling in one of the shoes but we are playing short-staffed right now because of some administrative issues. Hopefully when we have all of the players you will see us converting some of these good games into three points.”

Williams was disappointed to concede the two goals from free kicks, and cursed the bad luck of the team on the day.

“The kickers did what they had to do; they got the ball on target. I think our goalkeeper could have done a little bit better, in terms of the second goal especially, but I am not going to fault him. There are times when he definitely came up trumps for us. He saved a penalty, so it’s one of those games that things didn’t go right for us and when it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong.”

Tivoli could have sneaked a point in during stoppage time but a header at the back post from Odane Pennycooke hit the upright and rebounded back into play.

“Nothing much went right for us today and it’s all a part of the game. Hopefully next game we will have better luck in terms of our conversions,” he bemoaned.

Knowing the state of his squad and what he expects to happen over the next few weeks, Williams remains upbeat about what Tivoli can achieve this season.

“We lost 2-1 but in terms of how we play, it’s encouraging. We have some youngsters out there, one of them scored, so it’s very encouraging going forward knowing that we are in a repairing phase of our squad.”

Tivoli, who drew their first two games of the season before suffering the loss on Tuesday, will go in hunt of their first win when they go up against a winless Vere United team on Saturday.

— Dwayne Richards