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MoBay’s Davis wants players to refocus for JPL semi-final
May 14, 2025
Montego Bay United coach Paul 'Tegat' Davis has expressed his disappointment with the display by his team in the second leg of the Jamaica Premier League quarterfinal match at Sabina Park on Monday night.
After a 1-1 draw in the second leg Montego Bay advanced 3-2 on aggregate to the semi-finals.
Davis was far from impressed with his team's performance over the 90 minutes. It took 86 minutes for Brian Brown to break the deadlock against the nine men of Tivoli, after goalkeeper Nicholas Clarke (74th) and forward Lennox Russell (82nd) were red-carded.
However, even with a two-player disadvantage, Tivoli were able to pull back a goal in added time through Malik Cockings and Davis was disappointed with how they managed the second half.
Davis said he was happy for the win but slammed his players for being 'indisciplined' in their approach to the game.
"It brings us to the semi-finals but I don't think we controlled the game how we wanted to. We should have spread the ball around but we kept playing that long ball and it kept coming back at us and you can't play football like that and expect to go into a semifinal game. So we have to look back and examine what we did tonight (Monday).
"(The intention was to) keep the football and use the width of the field. When you have a man more, you use width and if you can't go forward you go back, then go forward again and we went straight (forward) every time and just gave away the football. We were not patient against the nine men," he said.
He said their inability to exert control over nine men was bad, but that conceding was even more disappointing.
"It shouldn't be (conceding against nine men). But we didn't control the game and if you don't control the game that's what happens.
"We got it right first half. We were moving around the ball pretty well. When they had 10 men we got complacent but in the first half we moved the ball and did what we wanted to do and controlled the game. The second half was, however, a bit poor," he said.
Davis, who guided Montego Bay to their last title in 2016, was happy to be in the semifinals for more than one reason.
"It has been a while. It has been eight years since they last won the Premier league so it's a good sign. We just have to get the guys focused and let them know what it means for the west (western Jamaica). So we want the fans to come out and lift us up because we are playing for them," he said.
On Thursday, Montego Bay and Mount Pleasant will meet in the second semifinal at 8:30 p.m. after Cavalier face Arnett Gardens at 6 p.m. The first leg for both semifinals will be played at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in St James.
