BY OSHANE TOBIAS OBSERVER WRITER
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine — Portmore United’s Under-21 team are the current leaders of the LIME/St Catherine Major League. But you can forget about them. They are just a guest team. The real competition is between Frazsiers Whip and Old Harbour Bay United, two of the parish’s most exciting footballing prospects in the last four seasons.
Frazsiers and Old Harbour sit second and third respectively in the 17-team competition after eight games. But, in reality, they are first and second, given that Portmore U-21s are only playing in this competition on an invitation from the St Catherine Football Association.
With that in mind, Frazsiers and Old Harbour duly met in last Friday’s mid-season final at the Spanish Town Prison Oval. The game was deservedly won by Old Harbour, and the huge 4-1 victory did not exaggerate their performance. They were that good.
But, rather than settling the score, this result has only heightened the debate surrounding which of these two teams, if any, will lift the title at the end of the season.
Old Harbour, a club formed just four seasons ago, are so far having a magnificent season. They are actually on course to win the St Catherine Triple Crown and qualify for the National Premier League.
Just two Thursdays ago they scored their most high-profile victory to date after beating top premiership team Portmore United in the semi-final of the Happy Sutherland Knock-out. They now await Rivoli United, who knocked out Frazsiers in their semis, in the championship decider on Sunday. In some ways, their current form mirrors Frazsiers’ success in this competition a few years ago when they beat both Portmore and Rivoli en route to the title.
These two high-profile victories in space of a week mean they will now go into the final of the Happy Sutherland final full of self-belief. And there’s no telling what a third big major scalp could do to their confidence, for already they are talking about securing promotion to next season’s Premier League.
But, while they are simply awesome in the one-off, cup games, Old Harbour have so far been playing second fiddle to Frazsiers in the Major League.
They are currently five points adrift of the Red Pond club on 14 points, having won four, drawn two and lost of their seven games played. Over the course of those matches, they have scored nine goals and conceded five.
Frazsiers, on the contrary, have been second best only to Portmore who are yet to taste defeat in their seven games, winning six and tying the other; 18 goals for and three against.
The only blot on Frazsiers’ record — eight games, six wins, one draw, one defeat, 15 goals for and seven against — at the half way stage is that mystifying 5-0 thrashing given to them by sixth-placed Tru-Juice (13 points) a few weeks ago. Experts, who have been following them closely this season, actually believe that defeat might have “shattered their confidence”.
“Since di man dem lose to Tru-Juice is like dem nu memba how fi play football,” one observer said following Friday night’s defeat.
True or not, the team that showed up against Old Harbour was definitely not the same Frazsiers who simply tore teams to shreds in seasons past. And for a change, their fans weren’t the loudest inside the Oval. “Frazsiers a baby side,” jeered the Old Harbour United supporters. “Dem need nipple bottle.”
Luckily for them, this is only a psychological win for Old Harbour and nothing else. They are still leading the league and could very well get a chance to avenge this awful loss, providing that these latest defeats aren’t a sign of things to come.
Sunday’s results:
Newland 3-2 Black Lion, Rodwood 0-3 Royal Lakes, De La Vega City 2-1 Portsmouth, Albion 1-0 New Raiders, Flamingo 0-0 DB Basovak, Tru-Juice 1-2 Christian Pen
Today’s Games
Portmore United v Newland @ Ferdie Neita Park, Frazsiers Whip v Naggo Head @ Frazsiers Content
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Old Harbour’s confidence soars after big mid-season scalps
