Gareth Davis, Gleaner Writer

DESPITE LOSING 0-1 to home team St Georges on Sunday, Tivoli Gardens' coach, Desmond Francis, is optimistic about his team's chances of winning the second end-of-round final against Waterhouse.

According to coach Francis, the distance travelled by the West Kingston team to Portland hampered their chance of winning Sunday's game, which was further compounded by a saturated playing surface. The slippery conditions, the coach said, robbed them of a likely victory.

"It was a hard-fought game but the playing conditions got the better of us," Francis said. "We will lift our game for the final and all our fans and ardent football lovers can expect a high-quality performance from us against Waterhouse."

Tivoli were shocked in the 18th minute by a goal from Brian Wollaston, formerly of Waterhouse, which sent Georges ahead. From then on, Tivoli went all out to draw level through some tactical moves from Horace Howell, Christopher Jackson, Denroy Gordon and Navion Boyd.

The visitors came close to scoring on several occasions during the first half but they were denied by Ricardo Taylor, Keon Clunis and Dwayne Holmes, who defended stoutly for the home team.

In the second half, Georges, backed by a capacity home crowd, started the early attacks through Damian Reid, Damion Harwood, Omar Henderson and Wollaston, but good defending by Steve Green, Dwight Heron and Gordon denied them a second goal.

Attacks

The final 10 minutes saw Tivoli launch a series of attacks through substitute Craig Stewart, who replaced Green, Jackson, Howell and another substitute, Jermaine Allen. The attacks brought out the best in Clunis, Watson, Holmes and Lennox Cargill, who stood firm in defence.

Winning coach Donovan Duckie praised his players for the hard-fought victory. He explained that the team was now back to full strength, something which was missing in their past four games as four of their senior players were on suspension.

"We played today's game as if it was the start of the third round," said Duckie. "At full strength, Georges can be competitive against any team in this league. I would like to commend the referee and other members of the officiating party who really displayed high levels of professionalism in the game," he said.