TUCKER, St James — Faulkland FC’s gutsy 0-0 draw with leaders Mt Pleasant FA at Wespow Park on Sunday was described as “a great point” by reinstalled Head Coach Gregory Palmer as they seek to get out of the relegation zone.

After giving up a half-time lead to lose 2-1 in their first meeting at Drax Hall, promoted Faulkland FC’s first-ever Premier League game, taking a point from Mt Pleasant FA was a big achievement for the St James club, one they had planned for, Palmer said.

Despite dropping two points, Mt Pleasant FA still lead the tables with 31 points, while Faulkland FC in 13th position on seven points from 14 games, still have a mountain to climb if they are to avoid the drop after just one season.

Palmer, who started the season in charge and was replaced by Leacroft Lettman for about a month before resuming his role in the previous round,explained his tactics against the league leaders.

He said they had put in a new system of “a 4-1-4-1 with a false nine”, and countered speculations they were playing behind the ball. “Mt Pleasant plays a high line and we had to play a mid-block so we had to wait until they got to the middle third so it will look like we were behind the ball,” he explained.

Palmer said they knew Mt Pleasant would use Trevanti Stewart as their target player and they planned to counter this. “We did marking drills in training and Kyle Anderson got the task to mark him and you see that it worked… this was our adjustment at half time,” he noted.

Theodore Whitmore, the Mt Pleasant head coach, said the scoreline or Faulkland FC’s tactics did not frustrate them.

“It was not a frustrating game for us. Faulkland did what we expected they would do and we did not capitalise on the few scoring chances we created, but such is the nature of the game,” said the former Jamaica captain.

Whitmore said they were pushing for the win to the end, nonetheless.

“At no point in time we were playing for a draw, and if you noticed the substitutions we made, [they] were all attacking changes,” he said.

Faulkland FC, who have scored eight goals so far and are 12th in the league, and had two good chances to score on Sunday, one of them by Neil Clarke who wasted a glorious chance in the 21st minute when he was sent through one-on-one with goalkeeper Daniel Russell, but his shot was forced wide of the right post.

The Faulkland defence that has given up just two goals in their last five games, however, stood up to the competition’s most potent offence as top marksman Stewart was shadowed by Anderson all game.

Teams

Faulkland FC — David Swaby, Michael McLeod, Kyle Anderson, Sajay Anderson, Jowell Powell (Donovan Carey-84th), Enrique Gordon (Rainnar Barnes-66th), Jason Malcolm (Husana Johnson-60th), Jelani Nicholson, Deshaun Woolery (Tavane Kerr-85th), Ricordo James, Neil Clarke (Tavar Thompson-70th)

Subs not used: Tereto Gregory, Marvin Sangster, Nicolie Barrett

Booked: Gordon (44th), Woolery (83rd)

Mt Pleasant FA — Daniel Russell, Odane Murray (Shande James-78th), Kymani Campbell, Ladale Richie, Shaquile Dyer, Alwayne Harvey, Ricardo Morris, Dwight Merrick (Atapharoy Bygrave-66th), Kimoni Bailey (Leonardo Jibbison-83rd), Demario Phillips, Trevani Stewart

Subs not used: Shaquan Davis, Leonardo Rankin, Melvin Doxilly, Sue-Lae McCalla, Donovan Segree, Jamoi Topey

Booked: Phillips (90+)

Referee: Alexi Perry

Assistants: Jermaine Yee-singh, Keniel Wright

Fourth official: Damion Coombs

Match commissary: Gregory Daley