Steven Morrissey's fifth minute strike proved the decider in a generally tough Digicel Premier League encounter between the losing host, Sporting Central Academy, and Portmore United, at Brancourt, yesterday.

The goal, probably the clearest opportunity the visitors ever had for the entire game, came on a counter-attack and before most of the home spectators had barely settled in their seats.

Yet it was the home side which engineered most of the moves, showing little inferiority against the defending champions. They enjoyed most of the possession, but were dreadfully unable to convert fluent attacking play into a final pass or shot to scare the towering figure of Dwayne Kerr in Portmore's goal. Sporting's coach, Donovan Duckie has confessed that an Achilles heel has crept into their last three games and one he is desperate to fix.

"It was the same thing against St Georges last week," Duckie noted. "We do the hard work but are still not getting that result in the final third."

Good look-ins

Three or four good look-ins around the six-yard area by Francois Swaby and Jermaine Christian were picked off by the trio of Anthony Modeste, Sheldon Baptiste and perhaps the best on the day, André Darby.

Coach Linval Dixon would later admit that Darby's inclusion had plugged the missing link in defence and took the pressure off his attackers.

"We expected a hard game and so we needed to be disciplined in defence. The guys were fantastic today," said Dixon, a formidable defender during his schoolboy career at Clarendon, Hazard and the national team.

The loss of first string goalkeeper Jacomena Barrett to injury early in the first half, and Terry Alves' ejection with 15 minutes to go in the second, greatly hampered Duckie's options.

Both teams entered the game locked on nine points and Sporting's latest loss was their second straight.