Nigel Stewart readily admitted it wasn’t Chapelton Maroons’ most convincing performance, but under the circumstances, the assistant coach believes their 1-0 win over Molynes United in a lukewarm Jamaica Premier League (JPL) encounter represents a substantial leap for the Clarendon-based club.

Chapelton Maroons, playing their first season of top-flight football, registered their second win of the campaign, as Rohane Brown’s 80th-minute strike proved the difference between two teams plagued by inconsistency.

With the win, Chapelton Maroons provisionally inched up to 11th position on six points, while Molynes United, also on six points, remained ninth on the 14-team table.

“Any win is good especially for a new club that is still a work in progress, so even though it wasn’t our best performance, we welcome this as a show of our hard work paying off,” Stewart, who is assistant to Lenworth Hyde, told the Jamaica Observer in a post-game interview at Stadium East.

“As you can see our bench was short because we still have the schoolboy players to come in, so we are just trying to hold strain until they do. So this is definitely a big boost for us and something that we hope will continue as we progress,” he added.

Molynes Head Coach Alex Thomas couldn’t hide his disappointment.

“[We were] dominant in a sense but it’s one of the worse ways to lose a game. We’ve lost other games before but this one really hurts. We just shut down and Chapelton did what they had to to win the game,” Thomas said.

Molynes United would have rued that the first half ended goalless, as they marshalled proceedings and could have had a few goals had it not been for some tidy glovework from Kemar Brown in goal for Chapelton Maroons.

But Chapelton also threatened in open play, as they too failed to beat the gloves of Molynes United’s custodian Peter Harrison, who did particularly well to keep out Jamari Howell’s stinging left-footer from the top of the 18-yard box.

With that momentum, Chapelton gradually showed more life on the resumption and had their first look at goal nine minutes in when Rushi Parchment’s left-footed effort went straight at Harrison.

Molynes soon settled back into the contest and looked more likely to score as they forced Chapelton into a defensive posture, but poor decision-making in the final third proved their undoing.

And as is often the case in football, they paid dearly when Brown outsprinted two defenders on the counter and drove a right-footer past Harrison in the 80th minute.

They could have and should have doubled the lead four minutes later from another well-worked counter-attack. However, Harrison, who advanced well outside his 18-yard box, took one for his team by blocking Jamari Morrison’s effort with his hands.

He was shown a straight red by referee Carvel Banton for the infringement, and to add insult to injury, his sacrifice proved futile as Molynes United failed to find the elusive equaliser.