CATHERINE HALL, St James — Former national striker Brian Brown became the first player in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) to get to 10 goals this season, after he scored a double to lead Montego Bay United (MBU) to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Chapelton Maroons in their Jamaica Premier League second-round game played at Montego Bay Sports Complex on
Sunday.

After tallying seven goals all of last season when the competition was played over two rounds, Brown, who recently celebrated his 32nd birthday by scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Harbour View, one of his former teams, has been carrying the MBU team of late with his goalscoring exploits.

Including Sunday’s brace, Brown has scored all the team’s goals in their last two wins and has scored in four of their last five games, but says while he has set a target of goals for himself this season he was keeping that number close to his chest.

He is fully aware, he said, that despite him being the one getting the ball across the line more often than not, it all came down to the efforts of the entire team. “I’m just relying on my teammates and the coaching staff [to score goals], and whenever I am on the pitch I am just focusing on putting the chances in the back of the net,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Sunday.

On Sunday Brown, who was joined by Cavalier FC’s Jalmaro Calvin who scored a brace against Waterhouse FC a day later, moved past Mount Pleasant FA’s Kimoni Bailey, who is on nine goals, followed by Arnett Gardens’ Warner Brown on eight goals, with three players tied on seven — Arnett Gardens’ Kimani Arbouine, Mount Pleasant FA’s Shaquille Bradford, and Harbour View’s Oquassa Chong.

Shaniel Thomas with six goals so far is the second best scorer for MBU, with the veteran Owayne Owens next with four as the trio has combined for 20 of MBU’s 28 goals scored so far.

While admitting that 10 goals just three games into the second round is a decent return, Brown urged caution.

“Yes 10 goals is a good marker for any striker — you cannot dwell on the chances that you missed, it is the ones that you score, [but] as long as you are missing chances it means that you are [also] getting chances. I have 10 now but it could be more, but I am happy with this,” said Brown.

On Sunday MBU went behind early against Chapelton Maroons but Brown said they never panicked.

“That’s not something you wanted to happen but that’s a part of football,” he said. “We kept our cool and played football, and once you play football anything can happen and things will swing your way.”