Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
PORTMORE UNITED advanced to the semi-finals of the Wray and Nephew Knockout competition with a 5-4 penalty shootout win over Boys' Town at the Ferdie Neita Park yesterday.
Portmore, trailing 1-0 after the first leg, levelled the tie with a 1-0 win in regulation time courtesy of a Jason Morrison penalty in the 77th minute against Boys' Town who turned in a stout-hearted performance - playing the last 20 minutes of regulation time and the 30 minutes of extra time with only 10 men.
Oneil McDonald, Jason Morrison, Ricardo Cousins, Shawn Sawyers and Adrian Reid converted for Portmore, while Ryan Powell missed.
For Boys' Town, Oneil Thompson, George Vernal, Andre Wheeler and Denzil Watson put away their spot kicks. The same couldn't be said of Fabian Watkins and Jermaine Bailey.
Winning coach Paul Young thought his team dominated, but failed to put away their chances - as usual.
"First of all, congratulations to Boys' Town, I thought they were gallant in defeat, even with a man down, they still stuck to the task.
"We dominated the first half and still did not convert chances. But we just have to keep on working hard and go on to the next game," said Young.
Meanwhile for Andrew Price, technical director of Boys' Town, it was a disappointing loss but a profitable season for his promoted outfit.
GAVE GOOD ACCOUNT
"All in all, it was a good season for Boys' Town and I think we gave a good account of ourselves," Price said.
"We played for about 45 minutes with 10 people and just came up short and at the end of the day, penalty kicks are the luck of the draw," he said.
Portmore United will meet the winner of this evening's Seba/Waterhouse clash today at Drewsland.
Seba hold a 3-1 advantage over the National Premier League (NPL) champions and could book their spot into the semis set for Sunday.
The other game this evening sees Harbour View hosting Arnett Gardens at the Compound at 7:00 p.m. with the tie evenly balanced at 2-2.
