Harbour View banking on discipline in JPL resurgence

The Wray and Nephew Jamaica Premier League (JPL) season has not had the best start for former champions Harbour View who find themselves in unfamiliar territory in the lower half of the standings.

The Stars of the East picked up just their eighth point out of eight league games on Thursday, following a 1-1 draw with Vere United at Wembley Centre of Excellence.

The Ludlow Bernard-coached Harbour View are sitting in 11th position in the 14-team league and pundits argue this is uncharacteristic of last season's JPL winners, who have scored 12 goals but have conceded 13 goals in what is usually a watertight defence.

Things were looking up once again when Harbour View picked up their first win against Lime Hall Academy recently, but all still isn't well with the yellow and blue-clad Harbour View, who had to dig deep to come away with a late equaliser to rescue a point away to Vere United.

"Discipline wins every time because we made a bold decision today that we would play with who came, and what we got was a total fight from Harbour View," Bernard said.

That fight was shown by former Kingston College players Caseeam Priestly and Trey Bennett, who put up decent shifts against the hard-running Clarendon-based Vere.

However, indiscipline seems to have crept back into the Harbour View players, with coach Bernard having to make several changes for the Vere game.

Notably, prolific striker Shaquille Bradford, who has scored six goals so far, was missing, and Bernard, while not calling names, says he is sending a statement.

"Every time we step forward, we take three steps back. I was adamant that irrespective of the result against Vere, I was going to maintain positivity until we get order in the football team," Bernard said.

In the meantime, Harbour had to come from behind to rescue a point as Andre Fagan outran his marker and tucked home the equaliser in the 82nd minute.

Vere United, who dominated the contest, got their go-ahead goal through an own goal from Ajeanie Talbott, who headed a Dunsting Cohen cross past his keeper.