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Tivoli Gardens and Mount Pleasant FA have advanced to the 2021 Jamaica Premier League (JPL) semi-finals – powered by Digicel – after the second leg of the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Tivoli Gardens slammed Vere United 4-0 in the first game of a doubles program at UWI’s Captain Horace Burrell Center of Excellence. The team fought for a 0-0 draw in the first leg on Saturday.
In Game 2, Mount Pleasant fought to a 1-1 draw with Harbor View and advanced 4-2 on aggregate.
Tivoli Gardens will face Cavalier in one semi-final on Saturday while Mount Pleasant will face Waterhouse FC in the other.
Waterhouse and Cavalier secured automatic berths in the semifinals after finishing first and second respectively at the end of the regular season.
Tivoli Gardens, based west of Kingston, put in a good performance and mercilessly sent Vere United.
Stephen Barnett gave Tivoli Gardens a lead in the 18th minute by scoring at home from a Devroy Gray cross.
Ricardo Messam then missed a clear header for Vere on the stroke of halftime and Anjay Gayle hit the bar early in the second half, and they paid dearly as Trayvon Reid scored a magnificent solo effort. in the 62nd minute to give Tivoli the advantage 2-0.
Substitute Horatio Morgan was no slouch and he clinically guided Romaine Bowers’ corner kick in the 86th minute for his fourth goal of the season.
Veteran Jermaine Johnson put the icing on the cake in stoppage time from the penalty spot, coming home calmly in the fifth minute of extra time.
“I thought we played well in the first leg and today the difference is we converted the chances we created,” said Tivoli coach Phillip Williams. “Today it was all about decision making and the races that were done and we did everything right. Our conversion rate was high today.
Despite the 4-0 loss, Vere’s coach Donovan Duckie believed the team played well.
“There are a lot of positives to take away this season and I’m happy with our game plan,†said Duckie. “We matched them and we were very aggressive against them, but after the first goal we were shattered to see that it was a questionable decision from a handball.”
Duckie further pointed out that “the difference between the two teams is that they (Tivoli) were very clinical.”
In Game 2, defenseman Oshane Staple netted the first goal Harbor View had been dreaming of when he scored in the fourth minute to reduce Mount Pleasant’s two-goal cushion.
Marauding right-back Staple intercepted a pass and then got ahead and scored at home. But substitute Jourdaine Fletcher restored the two-goal advantage to Mount Pleasant, scoring in the 62nd minute after replacing Daniel Green in the 46th minute.
A long ball from goalkeeper Shaven Paul was allowed to bounce by undecided Casseam Priestly and Fletcher pounced and lobed goalkeeper Tafari Chamber who was left in no man’s land.
It was Fletcher’s fifth goal of the season and placed him behind Oquassa Chong of Harbor View in the race for the Golden Boots award.
Fletcher will have a few more games to increase his tally and possibly overtake Chong who will be watching from the sidelines.
It was a balanced game, but Harbor View would have felt they should have scored a few more goals, but that never happened despite the draw.
Mount Pleasant technical director and coach of England Walter Downes was very pleased with the result.
“I would have liked to have played better. I don’t think we did our best today, but we got the job done, â€said Mount Pleasant technical director and coach of England Walter Downes.
Harbor View coach Ludlow Bernard praised his team despite being eliminated from the competition.
“The most important thing was the effort the players put in this afternoon. Probably the loss of Talbott (Ajeanie) made us dislocate in the first game and we took the time to adjust, â€he said. “But I’m really happy with the effort on their part and tactically we played as planned and that early pressure in the first 10-15 minutes I thought we could have kept it up a bit longer.”
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