by Ainsley Walters, Star Writer

Jermaine Taylor ... scored for Tivoli. - file

TIVOLI GARDENS yesterday reduced Portmore United's lead atop the Cash Plus Premier League standings to one point after notching a 2-0 win over last-place August Town at the Edward Seaga Stadium.

Sheldon Palmer and Jermaine Taylor scored for Tivoli, who are now on 43 points, stalking Portmore, who started the day three clear but were held to a 1-1 draw by third-place Waterhouse, who rallied from a goal down at Drewsland.

Waterhouse stayed third on 37 points, but just two ahead of Boys' Town, who jumped from sixth to fourth after blanking Seba 2-0 at Collie Smith Drive, relegating defending champions Harbour View and St Georges.

Arnett Gardens were also big winners, slamming Sporting Central 4-0 at Brancourt.

The Junglists' win moved them from 10th to eighth on 28 points in the standings, leaping past Reno and Sporting Central, sharing 26 points.

Defending champions Harbour View drew 2-2 at Reno and St Georges were held 0-0 by next-to-last Village at Lynch Park.

At Drewsland, Waterhouse rallied from a horrible first 30 minutes, during which they conceded a second- minute goal.

Early goal

However, Roberto Fletcher fired past Shawn Sawyers from inside the area in the 40th minute to cancel Anthony Bennett's early goal, a left-sided shot Maurice Evans turned into his own net shortly after the start.

Impatient Drewsland fans hurled abuse at the referees and their own players in a disorganised first 30 minutes, which forced coach Wayne Fairclough to quickly make alterations to his starting 3-2-4-1 formation.

Exploiting Waterhouse's vacant right-back with a quickly taken free kick, Portmore went ahead when Bennett, partnering Roen Nelson upfront, picked up the snap pass and cut inside from the left flank before firing a shot across Evans, which the 'keeper got a hand to but could not keep out of his goal.

A confused and disorganised Waterhouse were hardly able to leave their half, constantly losing possession to Portmore's pressing midfielders for the first 30 minutes.

Howell, whose foul on a Portmore attacker had led to the opening goal, looked out of sorts and had to be switched from a defensive to attacking position by Fairclough, creating breathing space for his tightly packed midfield.

Challenging

The move worked wonders for Waterhouse, who started stringing passes together. The homesters pulled level when midfielder Vincent Earle threaded a pass to Fletcher, who stumbled over a challenging defender but regained his footing to boot the ball past Sawyers, who had left his line to shut down the play.

A relieved Fairclough said his team has been getting off to shaky starts and needs to concentrate better.

"I believe, for the past couple games, we have not started with any zest and concentration," said Fairclough, who turned around the Drewsland team's fortunes immediately after taking over from Peruvian Danilo Barrigo near the end of the first round.

Fairclough said Howell's passing was badly off and he had to shift him from his defensive role.

"Howell was not getting his passes together and I had to push him to top midfield and ask Earle to drop back," he admitted.

Portmore's Linval Dixon said a draw was a good result even though they had come to take full points.

"We came wanting three points but never capitalised on our start," he said.

Yesterday's results

Boys' Town 2 Seba 0

St Georges 0 Village 0

Reno 2 Harbour View 2

Sporting Central 0 Arnett Gardens 4

Tivoli 2 August Town 0