Meadhaven United's Leighton Neita scores past St Georges goalkeeper Anthoniel Williams during the Digicel Premier League match at the Constant Spring football field yesterday. Meadhaven won 1-0. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Meadhaven United secured a much-needed victory yesterday with a 1-0 win over St Georges in the second round of the Digicel Premier League, played at the Constant Spring Football Field.

Meadhaven have now increased their tally to 15 points, advancing two spots to be ninth, four clear of bottom-placed Sporting Central Academy (11).

St Georges defeat

St Georges, suffering their first defeat since going down 5-0 to Harbour View on December 17th, remained on 29.

Both teams applied intense pressure from the start, but Meadhaven were resolute that they would not be outclassed on home turf.

Fifteen minutes into the half, with a clear pass from captain Keammar Daley near the edge of the penalty box, unmarked Leighton Neita opened the score line by hitting powerfully past custodian Anthoniel Williams.

However, St Georges failed to capitalise on the numerous efforts made by Daniel Shaw and closed the half trailing 1-0.

Despite the substitutions made in the second half, the Portland team again failed to get back into the game and in the 89th minute, they were reduced to 10 men when Ricardo Taylor was given marching orders for his second booking.

Nevertheless, Meadhaven United did not close the game on the safe side either, as they will be without Rohan Reid for their encounter against Boys' Town on Wednesday.

Reid was ejected in time added for stoppages, for his second caution.

Lijyasu Simms, coach of Meadhaven United, stated that his team was prepared for the game and had all intentions of coming away with the much-needed three points.

Change for the new year

"For the New Year we said we would make a change and it started today. We knew we would have a good game defensively. The players stuck to the task, played hard and we came out victorious," Simms said.

In response to Reid's ejection, Simms said: "I thought we should have made an early change where Rohan Reid was concerned. He was cramping up and we were warming up a substitute to make that change, but before we did he got a red card."

Meanwhile, St Georges coach Geoffrey Maxwell stated that, despite his team's efforts, it wasn't their day to score.

"We came here with the intention to get three points, but it just wasn't our day. I thought we played well in the first half but in the second half we just got very careless. Instead of playing on the flanks we turned around and started playing down the middle," Maxwell said.