Sporting Central Academy moved one notch up from the bottom in the Digicel Premier League, following a 2-0 win over Meadhaven United at Constant Spring Football Field on Sunday.

After benefitting from a Weston Forrest own goal at the 42nd minute, then doubling their tally a minute after half-time when François Swaby scored, the Clarendon team is now on 22 points, three ahead of Reno (19).

The first 15-20 minutes of the game was evenly contested, as both teams tried to settle. But as they game went on, Meadhaven created numerous opportunities to score in the half but all attempts proved futile.

Put through on goal

At the 25th minute, Leighton Neita was put through on goal by a defence-splitting pass from Weston Forrest, but he totally miskicked the ball.

Shortly after, Tafari Fairley found some room but from 25 yards, he kicked straight into the waiting arms of Andre Blake, the national Under-20 goalkeeper.

However, by the 34th minute, Andre Hickling received a yellow card for unsporting behaviour. This seemed to have marked Meadhaven's fate as in the 42nd minute, after a quickly taken free kick by Jevaughn Watson of Sporting Central, Weston Forrest, in his attempt to clear, headed the ball into his own goal.

The half closed 1-0 in favour of Sporting Central.

Meadhaven, whose demise may have been attributed to the absence of striker Keammar Daley, who was out due to an accumulation of yellow cards, fell into deeper trouble at the resumption of the second half, as they conceded a soft goal.

Central defender Rohan Williams made a poor pass which was intercepted by Swaby, who lobbed the keeper for his team to take a 2-0 lead.

By the 68th minute, Meadhaven United were down to 10 men as Kirk Duckworth was red-carded for violent conduct.

Six minutes later they, suffered another ill-fated blow as Nackwayne Parchment was also ejected by referee Courtney Campbell for violent conduct.

Substitute Kemal Malcolm, who came on in the 61st minute replacing Fairley, unleashed a right-footer in the 86th minute from the left side that brought out a good save from Blake once again.

Final attempt

Meadhaven's final attempt at goal came in 90-plus minutes following a good one-two combination by Forrest and Malcolm from within their own half that ended with Malcolm executing a shot wide of the goal.

Christopher Dawes, coach of Sporting Central Academy, thought his team needed to keep the ball more and should have created more chances for goals.

"It wasn't one of our best games but I think we were still efficient today," Dawes said. " We scored our goals, which we were creating all along. At first, we scored and then we stopped them from scoring. All in all, we deserved these three points," he said.

Lijyasu Simms of Meadhaven United believes that indiscipline and the absence of seven of their starting players resulted in their demise.

"We started competitively but indiscipline creeped into our game," Simms said. "The players lost focus totally and this resulted in us losing two players, which has now placed the team under more pressure," he said.