Waterhouse's assistant coach Damion Gordon believes the club is already on the right path to turn around their fortunes from last season and, by extension, achieve their ambitions, as they whipped Vere United 4-1 in a dominant display at Stadium East on Monday.
The prolific Javane Bryan, with goals in the 9th, 25th and 59th minutes, registered the season’s second hat-trick, to join Justin Dunn on six goals, shortly after the Tivoli Gardens striker also assisted his team to victory over another Clarendon opponent in the curtain-raiser of the double-header.
Substitute Jaheim Dorman (90+5) got the other goal for Waterhouse, while captain Javier Brown (88th) got Vere United's consolation from the penalty spot.
With the win, Waterhouse, who are now on a four-match unbeaten run, moved the second on 10 points with 11 goals to their credit. Vere United remain eighth on five points.
While reflecting on last season’s disappointment when they finished eighth on 39 points with a 26-goal tally, Gordon expressed pleasure with both Bryan's and the team's current trajectory, as they have sights set on Concacaf club football.
"We are looking at great things because we definitely want to get into a playoff spot and we definitely want to get into the Concacaf tournament, so this was a good result for us," Gordon declared.
"Javane Bryan was brilliant, he feeds off the supply of the team and his work ethics says a lot, so his goalscoring form is just a reward of how hard he has been working. But there is a lot more work to be done in terms of us off the ball movement, and we actually used our weakness from the last game to help trap our opponents tonight (Monday), hence the reason why we got a lot of goals coming down the flanks," he added.
Waterhouse were more purposeful from the start and opened the scoring in the ninth minute when Brown got on the end of a delightful Navardo Blair pass, and finished with aplomb at the far post, leaving Roje Williams, in goal for Vere United, as a mere spectator.
Bryan doubled the lead in the 25th, as he finished a free header from Andre Fletcher's weighted cross after he was again left unmarked at the far post.
Waterhouse continued to apply pressure but the probe to add to their tally in the first half, proved fruitless as they went to the break 2-0 up.
However, they didn't have to wait too long after the interval for another goal. This, as Bryan was on hand to finish a rebound after Denardo Thomas's header from a Nickoy Christian freekick came back off the left upright.
After offering very little in the attacking third for most of the game, Vere United gradually came to life and had a few half chances, the best of which came in the 77th when Steve Pinnock's diving header just went wide.
However, the Clarendon-based team got something belated got something to celebrate when the referee awarded a controversial penalty which Brown and Vere gladly accepted.
Whatever joy Vere felt at the end of that goal was shortlived as Waterhouse added another in time added. Substitute Donte Duncan showed nippy footwork to get by two defenders on the right channel and open space for pass which Dorman finished off from close range.
Jermaine Douglas, assistant coach of Vere United blasted his team's poor defensive display.
"We conceded two early goals because we never protected our back post properly and we were always chasing the game after that. We have to do some analysis because we never started like we wanted to play. In the second half, the mood and intensity were up and then we conceded again at the back post and that's where we lost the game, we just never defended properly," Douglas noted.
Match week results
Lime Hall 1, Cavalier 1
Portmore United 2, Molynes United 0
Treasure Beach 0, Dunbeholden FC 0
Mount Pleasant FA 2, Harbour View 0
Montego Bay United 1, Arnett Gardens 3
Tivoli Gardens 4, Humble Lions 1
Waterhouse 4, Vere United 1
