Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

MONTEGO BAY United Football Club (MBUFC) earned their first points of the 2012-13 Red Stripe Premier League on Sunday night when they scored a 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Highgate United at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in St James.

By virtue of the win, the Neider Dos Santos-coached MBUFC, which scored through Shawn Beveney, Allan Ottey and former Rusea's star striker Brian Brown Jr, traded bottom place in the 12-team competition with Highgate, which stayed on two points from four games.

"The team showed a lot of consistency tonight although we still continue to make a lot of silly mistakes," said Dos Santos. "Now that we have finally won a game, we need to put the past behind us and continue to build on tonight's success."

For Highgate, which looked good in patches and created several scoring chances, including a cracker from Severo Murphy that left MBUFC custodian Jacomeno Barrett stuck in his tracks as it crashed into the upright, it was mostly disappointment as all they had to show for their decent effort was a late strike by Dennis Neish.

"We gave up three goals to preventable defensives errors and then compounded that by missing at least five good chances," said Highgate's coach Calvin Lewis.

"The one good thing is that we got a goal in this game. Honestly, I felt we played well enough to have gotten something out of this game."

After surviving an early scare when Carlos Barrett broke free for Highgate but fired wide, MBUFC wasted the easiest of chances when Kemiro James broke clear on goal, but under no pressure, booted tamely at the goalkeeper.

With MBUFC settling down and looking ominous, they took the lead in the eighth minute when Beveney pounced on a left side corner kick and directed his powerful close-range shot into the back of the net, making the score 1-0 and setting off wild celebrations among the home fans.

Brown on the ball

Buoyed by their success, MBUFC continued to threaten, forcing back Highgate, especially before the goal where Brown attracted much attention with his deft touches.

Then MBUFC duly doubled their lead in the 20th minute when Ottey took a neat pass from Brown and looped a crisp shot over the goalkeeper, making the score 2-0.

In the 33rd minute, Highgate just missed getting on the scoresheet when Murphy's shot sailed through the MBUFC wall and after leaving the goalkeeper a spectator, it crashed into the upright and rebounded into play.

The second half started with both teams trading good attacks but failing to create any major problems for the goalkeepers. Highgate came the closest when Andre Dyce directed a header just wide of goal.

In the 71st minute, Brown's hard work paid off when he dribbled through the heart of the Highgate defence, glided past the goalkeeper and booted in his first Premier League goal, making the score 3-0.

With time ticking away in the game, Highgate threw caution to the wind and went all out in attack. They were rewarded in the 78th minute when Neish found space in the heart of the MBUFC defence and fired home easily, making the final score 3-1.