Gayle punishes UWI on his return

Marcel Gayle returned to his old UWI Bowl stomping ground with his new side Waterhouse and defeated his old team, UWI FC, in their opening second-round Red Stripe Premier League matchup yesterday.

The visitors, through second-half goals from Denardo Thomas (58th) and Tremaine Stewart (85th) moved Waterhouse up to fifth place in the standings with 18 points.

Gayle, who all but admitted that his knowledge of his former team, which he left in the summer, helped him prepare, said it was an emotional return.

"It was emotional playing against your old club, you never know what to expect, my heart was pumping through my chest. But my team Waterhouse relished the game, from minute one we were dominant and it was just a matter of time before we scored," he said.

"We played UWI earlier this season and we went back to the drawing board and worked out a few stuff and it paid off. We had a clean sheet today and the three points are a bonus on the road. Coming here at UWI is a tough hunting ground, so to get three points, we are grateful for that. This victory is a result of the week of training, we put in a lot of work and the result showed."

THREE REFLEX SAVES

Waterhouse were the better team throughout the entire first-half and were unfortunate not to have gone ahead before the break. But 12 minutes into the second-half, Thomas squeezed one past Amal Knight, who made three reflex saves, but could not stop Thomas' final shot from going over the line.

UWI showed some attacking intent towards the end but when Ryan Miller missed a great chance to level the score, Waterhouse countered immediately and Keammar Daley released Stewart, who scored on the second attempt on the UWI 'keeper.

Gayle said the focus now is to get his team through the round of midweek games heading into the holidays.

"We started the first round with a win, so, hopefully, we can carry on. But right now we are focussing on recovery because we have a midweek match and from now to the 23rd (December) we are going to have midweek games, so it's how we manage the players that will be important," he said.

Result:

Portmore 4-3 Reno

Dunbeholden 1-1 Humble Lion

UWI 0-2 Waterhouse

Tivoli Gardens 5-1 Harbour View

Arnett Gardens 3-0 Montego Bay