Shaun Francis (left) of Sporting Central Academy and Eddie Kingston of Village United in a keen tussle during their Digicel Premier League encounter at the Elliston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth on Wednesday. Sporting Central Academy won 1-0. - photo by Richard Morais

St Georges FC maintained their unbeaten home record at Lynch Park in Portland, with a hard-fought 0-0 draw against visiting team, Portmore United in a Digicel Premier League game, on Wednesday.

Portmore were on top early through Steven Morrissey, Kevin Deerr, and Roen Nelson, who threatened to score on numerous occasions. It required skilful defending from Dean Hellilide, and Barrington James to keep the visiting team in check.

But with the fair-sized crowd urging them on, St Georges clawed their way back into the game and started to counter through Daniel Shaw, Denroy Dennis, and Richardo Watson, which brought out the best in defenders, Tyrone Sawyers, Adrian Mitchell, Damion Williams and Nathan Koo-Boothe.

Squandering chances

The first half ended with both teams squandering a number of scoring chances.

During second half action, Portmore's coach, Linval Dixon, made three hurried substitutions bringing on Mario Swaby in the 51st minute to replace Anthony Bennett, Cornelius Henry to replace Bryan Bayliss in the 60th, and Ricardo Cousins for Deerr in the 64th, in an attempt to break the dead-lock.

The move did not pay off, as Nelson was virtually shut down by James, who stuck to him like glue. The player of the game was Anthoniel Williams in goal for St Georges, who made some outstanding saves.

Three substitutions

Georges coach, Jeffery Maxwell also made three substitutions bringing on Brian Woolaston to replace Watson in the 66th minute, Damion Harwood to replace Dennis in the 73rd, and Richard Orrette for Leon Irving in the 79th, in an attempt to secure full points. But like their opponents, that move was unsuccessful.

After the game, Maxwell said his team should have won the game from the first half, as they got at least two clear scoring opportunities.

"We should have got full points for this game," he said. "We are missing some key players due to injury and yellow cards, but I think that we lifted our game here today, unlike our last game against Meadhaven."

And Dixon commended his team for the effort, despite not securing all three points.

"We came here looking for a win," he said. "However, it is always going to be difficult against Georges, especially at home. Today's result means that we have also maintained our lead atop the league."