Cavalier carve out breathing room in top-six race

Sixth-placed Cavalier opened up a six-point gap on seventh-placed Arnett Gardens with a comfortable 3-0 win over Spanish Town Police in the Jamaica Premier League at Stadium East yesterday.

Cavalier scored the first goal after 26 minutes through Chad James, before Kimarley Scott (63rd) and Damarley Williams (70th) got second-half goals to put the game out of reach.

The win pushed Cavalier to 52 points, six ahead of Arnett and Chapelton Maroons, and seven more than a resurgent Dunbeholden.

Assistant coach David Laylor said the points were a major boost to their top-six aspirations.

“These three points helped to cement us more in the sixth position, and we can get better. What was more pleasing was how the youngsters played. We introduced them in the game and it really looked well,” he said.

However, he believed they took too long to put their opponents to the sword. “We started off too casual. We could have done much better. Some individual selfishness crept into the game. The earlier we scored on them, the more we would have scored, but we kept them in the game too long. But at the end of the day, we got three points.”

Cavalier controlled possession and eventually broke the deadlock when James got the opener midway the first half.

The hosts continued to dictate the pace and Kshain Gordon came close with an effort from the edge of the box.

Spanish Town Police had an even better chance in the 28th minute, but Carrington Blackwood’s light touch was pushed wide by goalkeeper Delmecio Fer.

From the resulting corner, Lamar Davis prodded a header just wide at the back post.

Cavalier created a number of good openings from wide areas early in the second half, the best of which fell to Scott, whose downward header bounced over.

Cavalier got the second goal when Scott latched on to a delightful through ball from Williams and lifted over the advancing Javaughn Darby.

Moments later, Williams added a third when he found room inside the box to curl a shot around Darby.

Scott had a glorious chance to make it 4-0 but couldn’t keep his effort under the bar from four yards after he was left unmarked at the back post.

Spanish Town Police coach Wolry Wolfe said it was hard to lift his team after 6-0 and 9-0 defeats.

“It’s always disappointing to lose. We had a great first half. Second half, we just lost it. They just didn’t come out for the second half.

“The belief is always to stay up. The players know what’s at stake, and to stay up we have to go and fight again. It doesn’t matter the past scoreline, we have been doing bad from Montego Bay, to be exact, 6-0, and after that, 9-0. We knew what we had to do today and we fell short again. We just have to keep working,” he said.

Spanish Town Police sit at the foot of the table on 26 points, five adrift of Treasure Beach and seven behind Harbour View and Molynes.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com