Harbour View's goalscorer, Marcelino Blackburn (left), battles for possession with Meadhaven United's Keneil Hyde during the Digicel Premier League match at the Harbour View Mini Stadium on Sunday. Harbour View won 1-0. - Anthony Minott/Freelance Photographer

With the game clock winding down, the small frame of Harbour View's Marcelino Blackburn rose above Meadhaven United's defenders and headed home past his opposing goalie, Andrew Gibson, after receiving an exquisite cross from Lovel Palmer on the right flank in the Digicel Premier League match at the Harbour View Mini Stadium Sunday night.

The win pushed Harbour View to a league-leading 32 points, while Meadhaven stayed near the foot of the standings on 12 points. They are in 10th position on goal difference, tied on points with Village United and Arnett Gardens. Sporting Central, on 11, are in last place.

Blackburn's goal, struck in the 88th minute, puts his league tally to five goals and he believes his hard work is now paying dividends.

"I have worked hard for this and now I have five goals, my aim is to score a goal in each match I play," Blackburn said.

Waiting for his chance

Sometime ago, Blackburn, popularly known as 'Bassa', was sitting on the bench, waiting for his opportunity to make his mark. He told The Gleaner that he wanted to take his chance with both hands and move from strength to strength. He's also issuing a warning to visiting teams coming to their home ground, Compound.

"When you come to Harbour View, prepare to play for 90 minutes because we play 90 minutes of football. That's why we won tonight," a confident Blackburn said. "We expected Meadhaven to come at us because all the teams want to beat Harbour View, but we are hard to beat at home."

Harbour View's technical director and head coach, Waldermar de Oliveira, heaped praise on his players and the club structure.

"We have good players and a good administrative structure at Harbour View, the players played good tonight," de Oliveira said after the match.

Meadhaven pushed Harbour View on the defensive in the early exchanges as national youth player, Keammar Daley, drove his team forward.

However, they were unable to pierce the Harbour View defence with the likes of Dicoy Williams, Ronny Amaguana, Lance Laing and goalie Dwayne Miller playing well.

Harbour View could not capitilise on first-half chances. Inept shooting and good goalkeeping by the burly Gibson kept the game scoreless.

Hunting elusive goal

Rafeik Thomas first tested him with a shot from the right side that Gibson dived low to save in the 25th minute and 10 minutes later, Gibson was called upon to save a header from Palmer.

The second half saw Harbour View hunting the elusive goal, but they were held at bay by an alert Gibson. He kept his team in the contest when he punched Thomas' free kick in the 60th minute over the crossbar.

Harbour View were reduced to 10 men in the 80th minute when Richard Edwards was shown the red card by referee Dave Peterkin for dissent.

This did not deter Harbour View and through perseverance, they netted through the 24-year-old Blackburn.

A dejected Meadhaven United coach, Lijyasu Simms, said that his team didn't play to instructions near the end and it cost them the match.