Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer

Village United yesterday played to their fourth successive draw in the National Premier League yesterday as they ended 0-0 with former champions Waterhouse at the Elliston Wakeland Centre in Falmouth, Trelawny.

With the point Village United moved closer to avoiding the relegation scrap as they moved into a clear sixth position on 39, a point and a place above Clarendon's Sporting Central which went down 0-1 to KSAFA's relegation-threatened August Town.

If Village are able to hold onto their sixth position when they meet Boys' Town in their final game of round three next week, they will finish in the top half of the table and will play their remaining five matches against only top half opposition and will have no chance of relegation.

In yesterday's game the home team promised much but delivered little as despite having the better of play, they could not beat goalkeeper Maurice Evans in goal for Waterhouse.

Village began squandering chances from as early as the first minute when Omar Allen missed a regulation chance. He would miss again a minute before the half ended when Leon Irving provided a nice cross, which he trapped well but misfired from inside the 18-yard box.

Glaring chance

Waterhouse, who moved to 44 points, while not at their fluent best would miss chances too, the most glaring of which went to the former Reno man Mario Harrison, who disposed a Village defender only to shoot high at Elvis Hart's goal. Kirk Ramsey was equally guilty in the second half when he lobbed high of an empty goal after Hart charged out of the rectangle to attack him.

Before Ramsey's miss, the Village supporters, whose numbers have increased with their improved position, gasped in desperation as they watched an Allen header elude Evans only to crash against the crossbar in the 61st minute. Seven minutes later Dawkins had one of his many misses when with a virtually empty goal to shoot at, he took the ball in the path of a defender and lost the opportunity.

That miss would be followed up in the 79th minute by an almost comical display. Irving in an attempt to get the ball into the back of the Waterhouse net, succeeded in hooking the ball away from goal. Village continued their profligate ways with Ricardo Reid and Dawkins missing two opportunities before time expired.

"We got chances today but they did not want to kick. We were in good kicking positions but they just wanted to cut back and so forth so we just cut ourselves out of it," a frustrated coach Paul 'Tegat' Davis said at the end of the game.

He also lamented the lack of effort on his players' part.

Drained

"I did not see any effort from the players today. They looked drained. The thing that we had going a few weeks ago we did not see that today," he said.

For Waterhouse's Hugh Blair, a point away from home was a good result, especially in unfavourable conditions.

"Coming from Kingston to this area we had a point and it is good. We like it.

"The field is difficult to play on, we cannot bounce the ball as we would like to but Village were on a good trend and we came to stop them today and got a draw so it is good to still be in the top six," Blair said.

Village 0

Waterhouse 0