Donovan Duckie of Sporting Central Academy is heartened, now that his team has broken its five-match losing streak by drawing 2-2 with Rivoli United in their Digicel Premier League match on Wednesday.

"Most importantly, we broke the jinx and got a point, although we played well enough to have won," said Duckie, Sporting Central's head coach.

"This, however, is motivation to keep the team focused in the next round."

Lack of concentration

His Rivoli counterpart, Bradley Stewart, though thankful for the draw, blame the result on a lack of concentration.

"Rivoli did not concentrate for 90 minutes and that cost us two points," Stewart said. "However, both teams are young and are trying to get a firm grip on the competition, so there will be improvements as they get more experience."

The match, played under lights at the Spanish Town Prison Oval, saw Rivoli lighting up the oval in the 15th minute when the Devon Hodges-Kirk Ramsey combination resulted in the first goal of the match. Ramsey outran the Sporting Central defence and sent a cross to the six-yard box for Hodges, who buried the ball in the net with a superbly timed header.

The first half ended 1-0 in favour of Rivoli.

In the second half, the Clarendon team struck the first major blow at the 57th minute when Francois Swaby beat the Rivoli defence to level the scores.

Rivoli's troubles doubled in the 72nd minute when Levaughn Watson converted a penalty to give Sporting a 2-1 lead, following a handball offence by Ricardo Knight of Rivoli.

The stands remained silent until the 83rd minute when referee Dave Peterkin pointed to the spot for a Rivoli penalty, and Hodges made it 2-2.