Police National's Orville Smalling (left) takes on Granville's Troy Reid (centre) and Jason Rose (right) in one of the tense midfield battles in yesterday's Wray and Nephew NPL play-off game in Montego Bay. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. - photo by Adrian Frater

Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

SPORTING CENTRAL, Granville and St. George's are locked in a three-way tie atop the standings in the four-team Wray and Nephew National Premier League play-offs following yesterday's first set of second-round games.

The Sporting Central team, which started the round in third place on four points, handed St. George's, the pre-game favourites, a 2-0 defeat at Brancourt in Clarendon, while Granville, who started their game in second position on six points, were held to a surprise 1-1 draw by bottom-placed Police National at the Catherine Hall Stadium in Montego Bay. That leaves the top-three sides with seven points with two games to play.

At Brancourt, Kevin Williams-coached Sporting Central, who drew 1-1 with St. George's in their first-round game, secured all three points this time around courtesy of goals by Onieke Ford and Javaughn Watson.

Police clipped

In the game at the Catherine Hall Stadium, the Granville team, which clipped Police National 1-0 in the first round, looked all set for a repeat when striker Jermaine Anderson fired them into a 1-0 first-half lead. However, with two minutes to go in the game, Sheldon Campbell found the equaliser for Police National, who now have one point in their campaign.

"We gave away a perfect opportunity to take over the lead in the competition by allowing Police National to get their first points of the season from us today," said a disappointed Tracey Reid, the coach of the Granville team. "We really have to go back to the drawing board and sharpen up for our next two games."

Although they are technically out of contention for one of the two qualifying places in next season's Wray and Nephew NPL, the Police National manager, Beau Riggabie, was nonetheless quite pleased that they were off the mark after losing their first three games.

'We should have won'

"This was a game we should have won but again poor finishing let us down," said Riggabie. "However, we are happy to be off the mark and we will be treating the next two games as if we are still in with a chance of advancing."

In a game in which they had the better of the early action, Granville took the lead in the 20th minute when a perfect cross by Jason Rose found Anderson unmarked before the goal and his glancing header gave the goalkeeper no chance.

In the second half, Granville continued to enjoy greater possession but faulty finishing let them down. The usually reliable Rodney Hines missed two 'sitters' inside the six-yard box after being provided with perfect crosses by Anderson and a savage grounder by Shannon Brown sailed inches wide.

After being denied by a brilliant save by goalkeeper Loxley Reid when he went full-stretch to parry Fidel Anderson's close-range scorcher, Police National pulled level in the 88th minute. Campbell won possession in a goal-mouth melee and slotted the ball across the goal line, making the final score 1-1.