St Georges Sports Club of Portland will on Sunday oppose Tivoli Gardens Football Club in first End-of-Round final in the Digicel Premier League football competition, following their 1-0 victory over Village United at Lynch Park yesterday.
It took the boots of Ushane Dobson to score the lone goal in the 33rd minute to ensure the Portland team a place in Sunday's final between the two leading teams in the first round, at the National Stadium at 7 p.m.
The Portland team, which started the game second in the standings on 21 points, two points ahead of Harbour View, only needed to win to cement their qualification against already-qualified Tivoli, the defending champions.
Victory thrust St Georges to 24 points, the same as Tivoli Gardens who drew goalless at Portmore United but had qualified ahead of yesterday's final round. However, Tivoli topped the standings by virtue of a superior goal difference.
Late games
Harbour View, the other team which started the day in contention for a place in Sunday's final, were tackling Arnett in one of two late games. The other involved Rivoli United and Sporting Central Academy.
In the other afternoon contests, Boys' Town (17) beat Waterhouse (13) 1-0 at Collie Smith Drive, while August Town (8) beat Humble Lions (7) 2-1 at UWI Bowl.
It was a confident and jubilant Braxton Hyre, coach of St Georges, who pointed out that Sunday's game will be treated like just another encounter.
"Yes, it will be our first End-of-Round final," he said. "History was created at Lynch Park today but come Sunday my team will be taking the field as is customary to play good and tactical football. We are happy to have qualified and it was a hard-fought victory in a game where we squandered many chances."
The game was totally dominated by home team St Georges, through frequent attacks by the skilful Leon Irving, Danian Reid, Dobson and Damion Harwood.
Georges' should have scored at least two goals in the opening 15 minutes, with their leading scorer Harwood squandering both opportunities from inside the 18-yard box.
The onslaught continued and after failing to find the back of the net with many chances going abegging, Georges finally broke the deadlock when Dobson fired a left-footed shot past the Village custodian from inside from 18-yard box to give the homesters the lead.
First-string goalkeeper
Village lost their first-string goalkeeper in the 37th minute, but not even that could change the relentless onslaught.
At the start of the second half, Village looked a completely different team and started to build their attacks through Teofore Bennett, Rushane Henry and Cordell Simpson, but they were denied by good defending from national player Jermaine Taylor, his brother Ricardo, Omar Davis and Dwayne Holness.
With the home crowd cheering them on, Georges lifted their game and dominated the last 35 minutes through the skilful Irving, substitute Romeo Parks, who replaced Harwood, and Ricardo Scott.
After the game Village's coach Cassman Williams praised his charges for the spirited effort, despite losing the game.
"We played a good game," he said. "We-played our hearts out and we lost our goal-keeper in the first half, which somewhat altered our game plan. The loss of our goalkeeper limited our changes and dampened our game plan. Congratulations to St Georges, who will go into Sunday's final."