Mobay United made to work hard by Barbican

Photo: Omar Gordon celebrates his goal for Montego Bay United against Barbican on Sunday. Mobay United won the game 2-0 as they registered their second win of the season.

Defending champions Montego Bay United were made to work hard by premiership new boys Barbican FC as they registered their second win of the new Red Stripe Premier League season, with a 2-0 win at the UWI Bowl on Sunday.

From the opening exchanges it was clear that Barbican was set up not to lose the game as they adopted a defensive posture, playing behind the ball and looking to break on the counter. The home team almost took the lead fortuitously when a cross from Neico Reynolds was sliced by a defender and just missed going in the goal.

Mobay struggled to get anything going offensively as Barbican effectively blocked up all the channels to goal. It took striker Allan Ottey 36 minutes to register his first effort on target, a deflected shot, that was easily handled by Ashek Taylor in the Barbican goal.

The first half ended 0-0 without either team testing the opposing goal keeper.

Mobay came out in the second half looking a more determined unit and midfielder Fabian McCarthy tested Taylor with a free kick from 22 yards. The keeper failed to hold on to the ball at the first attempt but recovered just in time to keep the scores level at 0-0.

McCarthy was dominating the midfield and his slick interplay with his teammates allowed them to push Barbican deeper and deeper into their area.

The game changed in the visitors favour with the introduction of Omar Gordon in the 63rd minute. His pace up front had the Barbican defenders at sixes and sevens and it was no surprise when he got the games opener. McCarthy curled in a free kick from the right hand side and he rose unmarked in the middle of the box to head powerfully past Taylor to make it 1-0 in the 71st minute.

Forced to come out of their shell in hunt of an equalizer, Barbican began to leave gaps at the back for Mobay to exploit. The team from the west created a few more half chances before they were awarded a penalty for hand ball in the area. McCarthy who had been the architect of the award, with his trickery along the touchline, scored the penalty with three minutes to go, beating Taylor to his right to cap a good overall performance.

The win moved Mobay on to seven points from five games and sixth position in the league while, Barbican remain rooted near the foot of the table with 2 points.

Speaking after the game Mobay United captain McCarthy said, “It was just a matter of time, we knew that they would soak up the pressure. We knew we had to keep patient and play around them and draw them out. We were very, very very confident that we would get the win.”

“We had difficulties to make our chances, they were very compact, they did a very good defensive work and blocked all the space. Our mental consistency helped us to be patient to find the spaces we needed to score,” Carlos Garcia coach of Mobay United said.

“We played a very good first half, we stuck to the plan. I think it was unfortunate for us in the second half that nobody went with the striker and he got a free header for the first goal. The penalty for the second goal was just unfortunate because it was very low.

“I think the team will grow from strength to strength and we will get better and better as we go along. Lapses in concentration cost us the game and we will have to fix that,” an upbeat Junior Francis coach of Barbican, said.

With only one point and one place separating Barbican from the bottom place in the tables, Francis will be hoping for three points when his team travels to bottom place Humble Lion on Sunday.