Portmore United striker Steven Morrissey (left) looks at the ball as he is challenged by Boys' Town's Xavian Virgo during the Digicel Premier League second end-of-round final at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday. Portmore won 2-1. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

Portmore United are a quarter-million dollars richer after winning yesterday's end-of-second-round final in fine style, beating Boys' Town 2-1 in the Digicel Premier League at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.

Portmore United, the overall leaders, topped the round with 24 points, three more than their Trench Town opponents, who took home a purse of $250,000, while Boys' Town pocketed $150,000.

There were no points for the taking, so Portmore are still ahead with 43 points. That's four more than Boys' Town, who were playing in their first end-of-round final. They returned to the top flight four seasons ago.

The reigning champions pounced with venom early in the first half as Steven Morrissey fired home a right-footer within the first two minutes of play.

But Boy's Town were hungry for a victory after losing to Tivoli Gardens in the final of the Jackie Bell Knockout, just over a week ago. Five minutes later, Renae Lloyd delivered with a header from a corner kick to equalise for the Red Brigade.

Not to be outdone, Mario Swaby gave Portmore United a 2-1 advantage in the 20th minute with a shot from the top of the area that flew inside the left post.

Boys' Town's chances took a nosedive in the 38th minute when Robert Scarlett was ejected for his second caution. This presented a myriad of problems, but they continued to fight valiantly.

In the second half, Morrissey and Ricardo Cousins featured heavily in Portmore's offensive plays, while Kemar Petrekin, Peter Keyes, Lloyd and George Vernal provided a good boost for Boys' Town by keeping their hopes alive with good attacking play.

Linval Dixon, coach of Portmore United stated that it was a strategy to score early in the game to add pressure to Boys' Town.

"Eventually, we knew Boys' Town would get tired. Of course, we wanted to score a little bit more but it's just a part of the game," Dixon said.

The coach stated that they wanted to improve on play all the time and what they did today indicated that they were moving one step further.

"Our performance was good from the start of the game," Dixon said.

Andrew Price, the coach of Boys' Town, said going down to 10 men made a world of difference to the team's performance as they were in the game until that point.

"Sometimes, there are incidences that change the game and I think the red card changed our game completely," Price said. "Portmore were basically doing clock management. They weren't' really coming at us.

"I must give my team some credit though, they fought stoutly in the second half for the entire 45 minutes. With a little bit more intensity, maybe we could have got something more out of the game. It's a learning experience, so we just have to get ourselves prepared for the third round," Price added.

Portmore United 2

Steven Morrissey 2nd

Mario Swaby 20th

Boys' Town 1

Renae Lloyd 7th