Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
PORTMORE UNITED are the toast of the football fraternity after their senior and junior teams walked away with their respective titles following contrasting wins at the National Stadium on Monday night.
Portmore United edge Waterhouse 8-7 on penalties to capture the Wray and Nephew National Premier League End-of-Round Final, pocketing $150,000 after playing to a 1-1 tie in what seems to be the longest game ever.
Portmore United Under-21s, courtesy of two goals from the prolific Stephen Morrisey (fifth, 44th), whipped star-studded Harbour View 4-1 to lift that age group's trophy and keep their unbeaten streak from last year intact.
In the feature encounter, in-form Fabian Malcolm, formerly of Tivoli Gardens, had given Portmore United seniors the lead in the 18th minute ghosting in unmarked to head past Richard McCullum in goal.
Demar Phillips equalised in the 31st minute after latching on to a beautiful pass from Richard West and placed his shot wide of a diving Shawn Sawyers, sending the Waterhouse supporters wild.
Both teams could not find the winner in normal and extra time so it was down to the dreaded penalty kicks of which Portmore converted eight of their nine while Waterhouse missed two.
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After five kicks Portmore's Adrian Mitchell missed his spot kick, thus setting up Vincent Earle to be the hero for Waterhouse if he could convert his team's fifth kick. He didn't and it was now down to sudden death.
Scoring in the first set of kicks were Anthony Modeste, Anthony Bennett, Woolry Wolfe and Kevin Deerr for Portmore. While Damion Powell, goalkeeper McCullum, Weston Forrest and Desmond Breakenridge converted for Waterhouse.
It was now high drama and Dave Clarke, Chris Dawes, Ryan Powell and Demar Stewart all scored to keep the pressure on Waterhouse kicking second. Adrian Reid, Craig White and Richard Edwards converted but not so for Rodney Rogers.
The hard-working defender's shot was easily kept out by Sawyers, the national goalkeeper, who dived to his left to block Roger's tame shot before racing away to celebrate.
Winning coach Paul Young said it was déjà vu for Portmore after repeating the same victory a couple years ago over Waterhouse as a player.
"I missed my penalty that night but we went on and won the game," Young said.
"History has repeated itself," he added.
Young thought his advice to his goalkeeper was what did the trick.
"I want you to stay and then react. Don't choose any sides because we are not professional players. Put the pressure on them. Don't make it easier by choosing one side. Let them make the mistake. And he did just that," Young explained of his chat with the 'keeper.
Meanwhile, losing coach Peter Cargill was disappointed with the result but thought his team played "a beautiful game of football".
"We fought all the way to the penalty kicks and it could have gone any way. That's football," he said.
Cargill, a former national midfield player who played alongside his counterpart Paul Young, was also critical of the officiating.
"I think the referee gave us a hard time. The calls weren't consistent but that's the nature of the game, you take it as it comes," he said.
