Portmore United were in ruthless form, flooding Bodles FC 5-0 in the feature semi-final game of the St. Catherine Co-operative Credit Union/Happy Sutherland knock-out competition at the Spanish Town Prison Oval on Thursday night.

In the opening game of the double-header, watched by technical director Rene Simoes, ended in a 1-0 win for Naggo Head over D.B. Basovak in the 10th minute of (100th) extra time with substitute Ralph Gordon scoring inside the 18-yard box.

When Gordon knocked in the winning goal, Simoes had just left seconds before with Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president, Captain Horace Burrell, in Burrell's private helicopter.

surprise win

Portmore's lopsided 5-0 win over Bodles was no surprise for assistant coach Christopher Bender.

"No, it's no surprise, we just needed to win the game, the margin of victory was not important. I thought we played a constructive game today and this gave us a chance to expose our young players," Bender added.

The Premier League's second place team, in their quest for more silverware, sunk the hopes of Bodles with two quick, early strikes from Roen Nelson (9th), and the towering striker Newton Sterling (13th), as Bodles searched for answers to no avail.

Portmore, comfortably poised with a 2-0 cushion, punished Bodles in the second half for an indisciplined game.

When Ryan Powell headed home in the 72nd minute to make it 3-0, it opened up the floodgates and the victors took their opponents' goal for target practice. Portmore's captain, Wolry Wolfe, blasted a shot from outside the 18-yard box that crashed into the back of the net in the 81st minute for 4-0 margin, then Under-21 player and former Glenmuir High stand-out James Thomas, sealed the issue with a strike from 22 yards out that beat the outstretched arms of goalie Jeffrey Soares a minute later.

Bodles assistant coach, Dave Senior, cited indiscipline for his team's lacklustre performance.

"The discipline is where we went wrong as players in central midfield and also in defence didn't carry out their roles and it cost us. We just have to go back on the drawing board and work on it."

He added: "I thought we showed Portmore too much respect. We came out napping and they caught us with two early goals and that kind of put us on the back foot."

The final is scheduled for February 9.

-A. Minott