Many-time champions Barbican FC got their new Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) Championship League campaign off to a winning start when they clipped rivals Browns Town FC 1-0 in the season opener at the UWI/Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence on Sunday.

A first-half goal from striker Damian English was enough to decide the contest for the more experienced Barbican team who were the first team to benefit from the $40,000 bonus awarded for each win this season.

The game was only eight minutes old when Romaine Reid worked his way behind the Browns Town defence down the left wing and provided the perfect cross for English who met the ball on the half-volley, but skied his effort from eight yards.

It was the perfect delivery for English, who, despite being unmarked in the middle of the box, was unable to get his shot on target.

Geo Headley had a chance to put Browns Town ahead not long after when the ball ricocheted into his path, but his left-footed stabbed effort went across the face of a gaping goal.

Barbican looked the more dangerous team in attack and created a few more opportunities before English finally found the back of the net with a well taken left-footed curler from the right, that flew past Alphanso Clacken in the Browns Town goal in the 23rd minute.

Browns Town proved to be the fitter team as they dominated possession and chances created in the second half, but the lack of a cutting edge in front of goal proved to be their undoing.

Headley found himself in good positions on the wing on a few occasions but failed to find the cross or make the right decisions at the right moment.

The east Kingston-based team felt aggrieved on two occasions when their vociferous appeals for a penalty kick got turned down.

Captain Okelo Howard had the last chance of the game for Browns Town in added time, but his left-footed strike went into the side netting as he failed to get his shot on target.

Kemar Daley, coach of Barbican, was happy for the win to start the season, especially without getting much training in to start the campaign.

“Unfortunately, we have just started training, less than a week, to be honest. But what the boys showcased today is actually beautiful,” he said.

Barbican rode their luck in securing the win over Browns Town and Daley isn’t prepared to leave things to chance for much longer.

“At some point, going forward, especially in this week coming, we have to put some work in to get the team together.

“Majority of the players were out, working. Some of the other players were busy doing what they need to do, family stuff…so we had a bunch of our U-17 boys fill in to be a part of the senior team right now,” he explained.

Daley is hoping that they will be able to get things going on the training ground in terms of the senior team, but plans to keep the youth players in the squad.

“We are hoping to bring back all our senior players together, but we are going to fill that with youngsters as well because going forward we need to have youth coming right through to the senior team.”

Browns Town Head Coach Peter Grant was proud of the performance from his young squad.

“My team came out and they really played a good brand of football that I was expecting. They are a very young team. We have a lot more to show in the future.

“We are going to get back to the drawing board and play some better ball next match. We lost one-nil, but I am happy to see how the team performed.”

Work this week will be focused on the attacking end of the pitch as Grant sees this as the area that requires the most attention before their second game of the season.

“We are going to have to work on some finishing because we got a lot of attacks going, but the finishing was kind of poor…so what we are going to do this week is work on a lot of finishing, so next match we can get some goals,” he stated.

The league continues tomorrow with Liguanea FC going up against Real Mona FC at the Stadium East field at 5:00 pm.

— Dwayne Richards