LEADERS PORTMORE United have added more stature to an already monstrous Digicel Premier League clash next week Wednesday against Harbour View, by opening the gap between themselves and the second-place team from east Kingston.

This they did with a 1-0 home win against Boys' Town at Ferdie Neita Park in last Sunday night's match to move to 66 points and open a six-point lead over Harbour View, which crawled up to 60 after drawing 2-2 with Waterhouse at Drewsland.

Steven Morrissey netted the all-important goal shortly after the interval that gave Portmore, the defending champions, all the points in their big match-up against Boys' Town (54), and makes the defending champions' impending clash against Harbour View even more crucial.

Only one round of matches remains in the third stanza and should Portmore win and open a nine-point gap going into the fourth round - where each team plays only five matches - it would virtually be mission impossible for the other top-six challengers to deny the Sunshine City team a repeat.

Boys' Town's loss dented their championship hopes, as they now trail Portmore by 12 points, two less than third-place Tivoli Gardens (56), who extended their dominance over Clarendon's Sporting Central Academy with a third consecutive beating - 2-1 at Tivoli.

Arnett Gardens dropped an easy catch to seal a spot in the top six while playing out a goalless finish at home against bottom-place Village United (23), which seem certain to be relegated.

Hasty retreat

St Georges made up ground as the Junglists slid, climbing to joint sixth (on 42 points) with Waterhouse, but both are only two points off Arnett, who will face Rivoli (37) in their final match this round.

Meanwhile, St Georges' coach, Geoffrey Maxwell, made a hasty retreat from Lynch Park on Sunday, even though his team defeated visiting team Reno 2-1.

It was one of those games which was completely dominated by Georges, who squandered no fewer than six clear scoring opportunities in the first half.

Daniel Shaw, Danian Reid, Denroy Dennis and Leon Irving brought the early attack to Reno, who were forced into defending.

Shaw had the opportunity to send Georges ahead in just the second minute, after a corner kick taken by Donovan Davis was cleared by a defender. But Shaw, who was lurking in the 18-yard box, fired a powerful right-footer on to the crossbar.

Georges continued to attack but Damion Harwood failed to find the back of the net on no fewer than three occasions against the second-from-bottom team from Westmoreland.

As fate would have it, Harwood finally broke the deadlock in the 41st minute from a corner kick taken by Davis, which was headed across the six-yard box by Omar Davis. The former then tapped the ball home for a one-nil lead.

Disappointed

The second half saw more fight from the Reno (23) team, which drew level in the 50th after Georges' defenders failed to clear a ball on the edge of the six-yard box and Fabian Blake fired a right-footer into the back of the net.

By then, coach Maxwell was shouting at the top of his lungs from the sidelines as his team appeared to have given up the fight.

However, Irving had other ideas and the midfielder, who picked up a ball close to the centre circle, dribbled past two defenders and fired a thunderous right-footed shot, which beat the goalkeeper and sailed into the net for a 2-1 lead.

Reno's coach, Wendell Downswell, was disappointed with the result.

"We came here for three points," he said. "We would have loved to secure a share of the points but it was not so. We played well in the second half, but we were too relaxed in the first half."