ST JAMES, Jamaica — Cavalier FC’s technical staff remain wary of not advancing to the Jamaica Premier League play-offs after they were beaten 0-1 by Montego Bay United at Jarrett Park on Sunday.

A second-half penalty from Dwight Merrick helped hosts Montego Bay avenge a 0-3 loss to Cavalier earlier this season.

The win saw league leaders Montego Bay move to 49 points. For Cavalier, it was their 11th defeat of the campaign — more than in the three previous seasons combined — and dropped them to provisional eighth place on 29 points.

“It is always a concern about us not making the play-offs but we are still plugging on as we do hope to get there,” David Laylor, Cavalier assistant coach, told the Jamaica Observer after the loss.

Laylor attributed his team’s malaise this season, after three very successful ones, to squad transition.

“When you are rebuilding you will get these kinds of results sometimes. We are definitely in a rebuilding process, as you can see we have a lot of players just out of school in the team.”

Xavier Gilbert, the Montego Bay head coach, was happy for another win that saw them maintain their unbeaten run since the start of the calendar year. The victory also means they maintain their seven-point lead over second-placed Racing United.

They had to weather a furious last 25 minutes from Cavalier who were coming off a 5-0 win over Spanish Town Police FC.

“It was difficult; they threw everything at us but we had the lead and we had to preserve it,” Gilbert said. “But, nevertheless, I’m happy that we got three points.

“You have to be smart in terms of [how] you defend; I thought we sat back a little bit too much. We could have still imposed ourselves and pushed them on the back foot, but it is what it is. Sometimes we’re just happy that we get three points as [this is] a team that we really wanted to ensure that we beat,” he added.

The home team dominated the play from the start and could have gone ahead as early as the third minute, but Timar Lewis headed a cross inches from the left upright. They then had to wait until the 55th minute when Deonjay Brown was fouled inside the Cavalier 18-yard box. Merrick made no mistake from the spot, scoring his 10th goal of the season.

Cavalier pushed everything in attack, and came closest to at least getting an equaliser, but Montego Bay goalkeeper Davonnie Burton just got his gloves to a low shot in the 80th minute to turn the ball away for a corner.

LALOR… when you are rebuilding you will get these kinds of results sometimes Photo: Observer file