CATHERINE HALL, St James — Harbour View’s Coach Jason “Buju” Henry was a relieved man after the east Kingston-based team snatched an added time, come-from-behind, 2-1 win over Montego Bay United (MBU) in their Jamaica Premier League first-round game played at Montego Bay Sports Complex on Monday.

A goal in time added from second-half substitute Omar Thompson decided the points for Harbour View after they had lost their opening game to Chapelton Maroons a week earlier, to give Henry his first win as a head coach in the JPL.

Thompson was, however, sent off later in the game after he picked up a second yellow card, and was one of eight Harbour View players who were cautioned in the game.

It was Harbour View’s first win over MBU since the 2022-23 season and ended the MoBay club’s run of 11 games unbeaten in the JPL — a streak that started in the second round last season when they ended that period on a 10-game unbeaten run and just missed the play-offs on goal difference.

Brian Brown had given MBU the lead after eight minutes but Oquassa Chong levelled the score when he converted a penalty in the 27th minute.

The result left nine teams tied for the lead on three points, after just two rounds.

“This was a hard-fought game,” Henry, who sat on the bench while his assistant Donald Stewart issued instructions from the sidelines on Monday, admitted. “From the first game we played we knew that we had to come here and dig deep.”

Henry said their game plan was “to stay compact in the game, and use our speed upfront, and we knew we will get something — and that paid dividends today.”

He told the Jamaica Observer their advantage over the MBU team was “outside on the flanks where our players are very speedy — so we denied them the midfield — and then we hit them on transition. And that was a big thing we practised right through the game, and it paid off today.”

Despite tasting defeat for the first time and after guiding MBU to a first-ever opening-game win last week against Vere United, Rodolfo Zapata said there is a lot of football still to be played.

“We have to learn from our mistakes and keep going. We created a lot of chances, we dominated the game, we had ball possession and ball control,” Zapata added. “We created eight clear chances to win the game [but] in a counter-attack at the end of the game, they won.”

He said he was still impressed with what he saw of his team.

“But the most important is, I’m proud of my boys because we played good football and we create opportunities. This is a long race, so we need to learn from the past mistake and keep working.”

Brown, who played for Harbour View several years ago, gave MBU the lead in the eighth minute when he beat the offside trap, dribbled around goalkeeper Romario Lama who advanced to the edge of the penalty area, and fired into an unprotected goal from an acute angle.

A rash tackle at the other end in the 27th minute saw Referee Daneon Parchment award a penalty, which was dispatched by Chong.

After seeing a header called back for offside in time added in the second half, MBU went behind when Thompson finished off a good team move and beat MBU’s goalkeeper Aaron Enill from close range.

The home team thought they had salvaged a point later in time added, only for the effort to be be flagged once again.