Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

With a tough fourth and decisive round of the National Premier League waiting in the wings, Desmond Francis, coach of title hopefuls, Tivoli Gardens is desperate to see his team find the scoring touch.

Neck and neck with Portmore United a couple of games ago, the West Kingston team saw themselves fall further behind in the title race after a 0-1 loss to Harbour View at the Harbour View Mini Stadium on Sunday night. The loss was the second in a row for Tivoli, which introduced a visibly out-of-shape Christopher Nicholas, a once consistent goal scorer for the club, with 15 minutes left to go.

"We've been getting the chances, we haven't been able to put them away," Francis said.

"It something we have really been working on, but it hasn't paid off so far, if we are going to win the title that will have to change," he added.

Harbour View forward Marcelino Blackburn, who put in an honest shift, fired his team into the lead at the 66th minute. Blackburn, who was brought down just outside the area, latched on to the deflection from the ensuing Christopher Harvey free kick and turned to curl his shot around Tivoli custodian Leon Gordon from 10 yards away.

Tough angle

The West Kingston team could easily have found themselves ahead just minutes before that. Breaking into the area, striker Navian Boyd had a good look at the open net but he could only find the feet of onrushing custodian Dwayne Miller. The attempt wasn't the first the forward had seen stopped by Miller, as in the first half the keeper latched on to another shot from Boyd, right at the break, albeit at a much tougher angle for the young striker.

Miller was again off his line in a flash to stifle a 43rd minute cross from Boyd which had gone directly to the feet of a charging Oraine Simpson in an even game where the home team gave as good as they got.

Kavin Bryan had missed a header from point blank range after right back Ronny Amaguana had served up a tempting cross in the ninth minute. Tivoli keeper Gordon also had to react quickly to palm away a cracking shot from Amaguana after the defender drifted in from the flank in the 24th minute.

Despite being a bit too far off the pace to realistically retain the title, at 44, Harbour View are 14 points behind the leader, but coach Lenworth Hyde was pleased with the team's performance.

"The team was very disciplined tonight, they really wanted to win. We weren't going to lose two games in a row to Tivoli," he said.

"You can't be playing in a competition and not want to do well, our simple objective was to win the rest of our games and this is one," he added.

Harbour View 1

Marcelino Blackburn 52nd

Tivoli Gardens 0