Western Bureau:
Harbour View stayed in contention for a spot in the Digicel Premier League (DPL ) first end-of-round final, following a 2-0 win, which blemished the previously unbeaten home record of Village United at the Elliston Wakeland Centre yesterday.
The win moved the Stars of the East to 19 points, behind already qualified Tivoli (23) with one round remaining, with St Georges (18) left to play Portmore in the late encounter last night.
Village, who were suffering only their second defeat of the season, wrecked their chances of making that final.
"It was a hard-fought game and we are quite pleased with this result," said Harbour View's coach Donavan Hayles. "We did not play particularly well as we only started to manage the game well, after we got the two goals."
First real chance
The game started with good end-to-end action, but the first real chance of the match fell to Harbour View in the third minute. Kemar Pertrekin took a superb pass from Jermaine Hue, but his delicate chip went straight to goalkeeper Elvis Hart. Village countered a minute later but failed to capitalise, after Shavor Campbell fumbled badly before the goal.
After watching Village waste another chance in the seventh minute, Harbour View took the lead in the 13th minute. An attack down the left side caught the Village defence napping, allowing striker Marcelino Blackburn to sneak through before firing past Hart, making the score 1-0.
Village wasted a glorious chance to pull level six minutes into the second half. Substitute Teofore Bennett was fouled on the edge of the penalty area by Montrose Phinn, who received a red card for the offence. Skipper Troy Smith however, curled the resulting free-kick over the cross bar.
Squandered opportunity
In the 66th minute, Village came close again but squandered the opportunity. Substitute Renwick Parkinson unleashed a fabulous overhead kick from the edge of the box but the ball flew inches wide of the goal.
Harbour View doubled their lead in the 85th minute when a speculative 40 yard free-kick by Blackburn slipped between the legs of goalkeeper Hart, making the score 2-0.