Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer

Wadadah's Markeino Gillings (right) and Fabian Watkins of Boys' Town battle for the ball in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League game at the Elleston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth yesterday. Boys' Town came away with a 2-1 victory. - Photo by Richard Morais

THE RED Brigade of Boys' Town arrested the negative development of their losing streak by coming from behind to beat Wadadah of St. James 2-1 at the Elleston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth, Trelawny, yesterday.

Boys' Town owed their win to strikes in the 50th minute by George Vernal and Denzil Mitchell in the 89th. Markeino Gillings had earlier fired the 'home' team into the lead in the eighth minute.

The loss kept Wadadah rooted in the relegation zone while Boys' Town stood firm in eighth position with two games in hand.

It was a deserved victory for the visiting team as it controlled the midfield, played a better brand of football and had it not been for the quality of Wadadah goalkeeper Gavine Barrett, the margin of victory could have been wider.

Things started positively for Wadadah when Gillings reacted quickly to a rebound off a point-blank shot from Rohan Reid and buried it past goalkeeper Kirk Porter. The lead was not a true reflection of the run of play and it was only a matter of time before the better play of the visitors would tell.

That equaliser would not come until the 50th minute when the dangerous Vernal capitalised on a defensive error.

Rally

Wadaddah tried to rally with captain Daniel Ricketts shooting just wide seven minutes later from a Reid layoff but they would not retain the lead.

Both teams made a number of changes and both almost saw substitutes scoring. Santino Christie for Wadadah had the last in a series of close-range efforts from a corner blocked by Porter while Peter Keyes could not capitalise on his chance.

Just when the game appeared set to peter out into a tame draw, a brilliant strike from Watson put paid to that. With an excellent first touch he trapped a rebound from a corner just outside the 18-yard box and blasted it across Barrett to hand his team victory.

"We had been playing some good matches in the last three weeks and we decided that by any means necessary we had to get three points. We need some goals and you see that the performance has been up to par," a pleased Herbert 'Dago' Gordon, coach of Boys' Town, said at the end of the game.

For Wadadah coach Anthony 'Follies' Williams, his team was just short of quality.

"It is a depleted team right now. It is not getting better," said Williams adding that, "It is not like Jarrett Park where we play in an advantageous situation under the lights," Williams said.

"We are playing here at 3:00 p.m. which we are not used to so I guess the humidity took its toll," he said.

Boys' Town 2

George Vernal 50th

Denzil Mitchell 89th)

Wadadah 1

Markeino Gillings 8th