TUCKER, St James — Montego Bay United (MBU) scored two late goals to complete a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Portmore United (PMU) in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) match at WesPow Park on Sunday.

Deonjay Brown had netted twice — both close-range headers for the home team — before substitute Denri Williams scored his first JPL goal in time added as MBU snapped a three-game losing skid.

It was a bitter loss for PMU, who led twice through Emelio Rousseau and Chevaughn Walsh. It was their second loss of the campaign, ending a six-game unbeaten run.

Despite the defeat Portmore United remain third on 11 points. Montego Bay inch up to 10th place on eight points.

All five goals came in the final 40 minutes of the second half, plus stoppage time, after a largely pedestrian first half.

“It was an excellent result today,” said MBU Coach Neider Dos Santos.

“I mean, the performance could have been better. We started the game very well but we made a little mistake in the middle and gave them a very clear opportunity and then we played our game, we controlled the game.”

The Brazillian described the second half as “very dramatic”.

He added: “We gave away two goals but the good point is, even though we gave away two goals we kept trying. We kept believing it would be possible [to] turn around the game and win those three very important points.

“It is the football players… sometimes mistakes happen. We have to minimise it because against a team like that [we will] not always have power to come back but today, fortunately, we did it and got a very good three points — and I think the team deserve it.”

Phillip Williams, the Portmore coach, was left distraught.

“It was a very, very, very tough loss. We gave up three soft set plays, and we didn’t defend those set plays, and it cost us today,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We needed to take the crowd out of the game and play Portmore football — and we did that for [the] most part. It is just that the set plays, we did not position ourselves and it cost us.

“[We were] pretty comfortable with the first half, in terms of how we were managing the game. In the second half we got a little bit more space. We put in some experienced players and got some more ball possession, but going ahead twice and not [being] able to hold on at this level is not good for us and it’s something that we have to work on,” Williams said.

As early as the 12th minute Portmore United’s Trevon Thorpe saw his shot from the right side beat Montego Bay’s goalkeeper William Ferreira. But it came back from under the crossbar and was headed to safety by defender Lucas Lima Correa.

Two minutes later Ferreira was equal to a fierce free kick, pushing it over the bar for a corner.

MBU’s only glimpse at goal came in the 25th minute when Leo Campbell was just beaten by a low cross from the left side, with the forward three yards away from the unprotected goal.

After the tedium of the opening 45 minutes the second half exploded into life. Midfielder Rousseau capitalised on an error by Ferreira, who left his line but was beaten to the ball by a Portmore player who crossed it into the centre. Rousseau powered the ball into the wide open goal in the 54th minute.

Montego Bay drew level in the 67th minute when Portmore United’s goalkeeper Tyrone Williams could only parry a powerful free kick from Jean Claudio Ferreeira into the path of Brown who headed it back past the custodian from about three yards out.

Two minutes later, Walsh took full advantage of another mistake by MBU to restore his team’s lead as he latched on to an errant back header from Odane Nish and smashed it past goalkeeper Ferreira.

Brown was well placed in the 90th minute to score his second goal of the game, heading past Williams to tie up the scores.

Williams completed the comeback four minutes into time added, with virtually the final kick of the game, when he beat the Portmore goalkeeper from inside the 18-yard box.