Portmore United's goal scorer, Bryan Bayliss (left), takes on Village United's defender Andre Moore in Sunday's Digicel Premier League at the Elleston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth. Portmore won 1-0. - Photo by Adrian Frater

Western Bureau:

Reigning champions Portmore conquered both their opponents and the difficult playing conditions at the Elletson Wakeland Centre in Falmouth on Sunday afternoon, when they clipped struggling Village United 1-0 in their Digicel Premier League fixture.

After a keenly contested first half, in which good chances fell to both teams, the more-efficient Portmore aggregation, which entered the game as the competition's joint leaders, got their all-important goal in the 66th minute, when Bryan Bayliss buried a superb through pass fed by the wily Eric Vernan.

"The conditions were definitely not conducive to good football because of the strong wind and tough playing surface," said Linval Dixon, the coach of the Portmore team. "We should have got at least two more goals, because we created a number of scoring opportunities, especially late in the game."

Glorious chance wasted

After a somewhat slow start to the game, Portmore created the first real chance in the 13th minute when Vernan dribbled in from the right flank, but fired wide.

Village United countered in the 15th minute when Raymond Thompson pounced on a rebound before the goal, but fired wide of the mark.

After seeing Portmore wasting a glorious chance in the 28th minute when Michael Binns fired wide after dribbling close to the edge of the penalty area, Village United missed back-to-back chances in the 32nd and 35th minutes.

First, Radcliff Hall nodded a neat header into the path of Everette Mullings, but he fired straight at the goalkeeper. Second, Mullings volleyed wide of the goal.

Three minutes into the second half, Village created a glorious opportunity when Mullings capitalised on a defensive error. But with a clear shot on goal, he struck the ball wide of goalkeeper Shawn Sawyers and the goal.

With the wind in their favour, Village had long periods of dominance, knocking the ball around in midfield. However, their advances lacked purpose, as the attempts on the Portmore goal were few and far between.

Hall got on opportunity in the 55th minute, but instead of shooting, he made a wayward pass.

Neat dribble

Midway the half, Portmore gradually began to seize the initiative and several chances came their way. In the 62th minute, Vernan all but scored when he left the Village defence in shambles with a neat dribble, but his shot was brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Jacomena Barrett.

With the momentum in their favour, Portmore struck in the 66th minute, when the wily Vernan slipped a neat pass to Bayliss and with the advancing goalkeeper at his mercy, he calmly fired home, making the score 1-0.

After taking the lead, it was basically all Portmore as the Village team seemed to have lost their zest and looked really tame on the few occasions in which they found themselves in a position to attack.

On the other hand, Portmore were quite purposeful, launching nume-rous attacks, but unfortunately, they failed to add to their tally.

Despite that, they remained equal on points at the top of the league with Harbour View at 50. Village, meanwhile, are now in a relegation spot, second from bottom on 21 points. They were overtaken by Sporting Central Academy, which moved to 23 points with a 2-1 win over Rivoli United, also on Sunday.