Shaw ... almost scored a free kick for St Georges.

Newcomers and cellar-dwellers Humble Lions produced an enterprising rearguard play to hold St Georges to a 0-0 draw in their Digicel Premier League game at Effortville Community Centre yesterday.

Look-ins at goal were few and far apart and hustled play, as well as strong physical defensive alertness, were hallmarks of the 90 minutes.

Despite making three attacking second half changes, including Daniel Shaw who came close with two spanking free kicks around the 25-yard mark, coach Braxton Hyre appeared pretty much settled that a draw was deserving in the circumstances, and even gave the home side some credit.

No need for worry

It was the second straight draw for the first End-of-Round finalists, but Hyre suggested there was no need to worry at this stage.

"Listen, all the games are going to be hard, especially now that everybody is on cue now," he told The Gleaner.

"Humble Lions played well and certainly looked more organised than before."

If only on the strength of Member of Parliament Mike Henry's publicised three-game ultimatum for improvements, the home side, under pressure to begin pulling their weight in the league, seemed determined not to lose and were at no time committed with enough attackers.

Their main attacker Norado Brown ran his heart out but was bungled while Kimroy Davis barely had a run at the St Georges defence, marshalled by the Taylor brothers - Jermaine and Ricardo. However, despite eliciting good raves even from the partisan crowd for their cohesiveness, the two received cautions for delaying tactics and unsportsmanlike behaviour, respectively, in the second half.

Still, it was the home side which got the best chance to score when the St Georges goalkeeper - in a rare moment of madness - lost a ball he should have cleared and followed attacker Dion Sterling too far from his goal area.

Sterling could have lobbied towards goal but chose a lateral pass to Errol Wilkie. With the goalie unable to get back, Wilkie's shot was blocked, but a rebound found Omar Walters who shot wide of the target from the edge of the six-yard line.