Photo: Jermaine “Tuffy” Anderson controls the ball while under pressure from Nicholas Smith, Edsel Scoot is in the background. Anderson scored the lone goal of the game in the 65th minute to help Waterhouse to only their second win of the season.
Waterhouse FC climbed out of the Red Stripe Premier League’s relegation zone by beating Tivoli Gardens FC 1-0, thanks to Jermain Anderson’s second-half goal on Sunday. Anderson scored in the 65th minute, turning home a near-post finish following an intelligent cut back from last week’s two goal hero Rodave Murray. It was Waterhouse’s second win of the season, and first at their Drewsland stadium.
“You lick him dung him bounce right back what a hard man fi dead” those words from Prince Busta’s hit single were echoed by the jubilant fans, in solidarity with Jermaine ‘Tuffy’ Anderson who suffered a fractured nose in their last fixture and came back to play the full 90 minutes and grabbed the game’s only goal.
The beautiful rays of the sun laced the Waterhouse community, complimenting a jam packed stadium. The fans were out in their numbers to witness first hand the return of their long standing heroes – Irvino ‘Dadda’ English, Weston ‘Barney’ Forrest and the irrepressible Anderson . Waterhouse deployed an attacking formation hoping to continue on their winning ways that began against Harbour View last week. They were almost rewarded in the 1st minute of play, when Anderson controlled expertly at the top of the box, turned and pulled the trigger. It whistled past the upright, much to the distress of the anxious crowd.
Both teams settled down quickly after that and stroked the ball nicely around the lush green park at Drewsland. However, Tivoli Gardens was close to making Waterhouse pay for a dreadful pass by English, but Marvin Stewart was adjudged offside after he slotted home a rebound from a ferocious shot by former Cavilier SC stand out Mitchily Waul.
An evenly poised game reminded the fans of the heavyweight bout of Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield where the two traded punch for punch. In the 12th minute the twinkle toed Andre Mcfarlane danced his way into the box, and appeared to be fouled by defender and captain Romaine Brakenridge but his penalty appeal was waved off by the referee.
Moments later a comedy of errors between Oshane Roberts and Nicholy Findlayson gave Jermaine ‘Teddy’ Johnson a break away to set Waul through with a sublime pass. Waul was one and one with the keeper but his unselfishness gave Nataniel Leslie enough time to recover after the Tivoli striker tried to slip an uncanny pass to Shavar Campbell.
The momentum had slowly swung Tivoli’s way and they were in a desperate search for the opening goal. Shavar Campbell continued to prove a handful for the Waterhouse defence and if he had his scoring boots on he would have made it one nil. Campbell was involved at the back end of a nice give and go with Tevin Shaw and Waul which opened up the Waterhouse defence; but his poorly taken kick went wide from 8 yards. Waterhouse has used all their ‘get out of jail free’ cards and were very happy to be still in the game at the break.
On the resumption both teams made some obvious adjustments with Tivoli’s Johnson playing as a central striker and Waterhouse’s Romario ‘Rum Rum’ Campbell getting more of the ball.
In the 53rd minute, coach Marvin Tate’s instructions almost paid off when Anderson was played through superbly by McFarlane but his effort was charged down by the advancing Edsel Scott. The pendulum had now swung in Waterhouse’s favor and with some memorizing runs by Campbell, Anderson, English and McFarlane a goal would have been a just reward.
However, as clever as the wiley Mcfarlane was, he was substituted shortly thereafter, much to the dismay of the supporters. The action man Murray was his replacement and he made his presence felt immediately. In the 65th minute Anderson cushioned a headed pass to Murray who shaped to shoot then cut back the ball to an unmarked Anderson who slotted home from 6 yards. Anderson’s goal confirmed Blaise Pascal’s theory of probability. Waterhouse’s best chance to see the game off came in the 72nd minute when Murray in a similar position as the one before, played an identical ball to an unmarked Campbell who had all the time in the world to pick his spot but blasted the ball over the top.
Waterhouse defended frantically to keep their one goal advantage intact before Tivoli went down to ten men when Jermaine Johnson was given a second yellow card.. From there on they didn’t offer much threat offensively.
Waterhouse managed to see the game out with Forrest plugging the hole in the middle as a defensive midfielder. The win was a much needed boast to the team that are out of the drop zone for the first time of the season.
Goal scorer Jermaine ‘Tuffy’ Anderson said, “This is my job (scoring goals) and I always come out and give my all for Waterhouse fans. These fans build me, they fight for me, when I score I give them my heart”.
“Waterhouse is my heart, my father, my family represented this club, though the last club I played for locally was Tivoli Gardens FC. It was a nice feeling coming back home and playing in front of such wonderful fans. I played the entire game surprisingly and it’s a good feeling but I was promised 60 minutes,” said the returning Irvino English.
Waterhouse coach Marvin Tate said it was tactics that won the day for his team, “God was good to us despite having 5 players on the injury list we came out and we fought. This is what we need from the players if we are to make it to the top four. Tivoli’s defence was a little too relaxed so the introduction of Murray paid off, he was direct”.
Coach Omar Edwards said, “It was a tough loss I thought the guys played some beautiful football, a game that could have gone either way. We created several opportunities but we didn’t capitalize on the chances we created and then we gave up a soft goal. But we just have to go back to the training ground and work on the offensive aspect of our game. The forwards need to be more rapacious. We also need to work on our defensive unit in dealing with the aerial balls.”
The win lifted Waterhouse up to 10th position on 6 points while Tivoli Gardens who have seven points slipped two spots to 8th.
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