TITLE-CHASING Boys' Town moved within seven points of leaders Portmore United with a crucial 1-0 victory over Waterhouse in yesterday's Red Stripe Premier League game at Collie Smith Drive.

First-half substitute Anthony Bennett provided the only goal of the game with a sublime free-kick just after the restart to push the home side up to 57 points.

Waterhouse dominated first-half play and should have at least got a goal for their enterprise, but lacked the cutting edge in the final third.

And Bennett's 55th-minute strike proved to be a fatal blow to their title challenge as they remained 12 points behind Portmore, who have a game in hand, with just four games to go.

Boys' Town, on the other hand, will continue to cling onto their faint hopes of overhauling Portmore, but are cognisant of the fact that it will take a giant effort to achieve that feat.

They will not only need to put together an impressive winning streak in their remaining four games, but will also need the St Catherine side to drop points rapidly.

"We will continue to fight until the last day," coach Andrew Price said. "As long as there is something to play for we will come out and give it an honest effort."

Waterhouse coach Donovan Duckie, who had previously written off his team's title hopes, thought they paid for their poor first-half finishing.

He said: "We were the better team in the first-half, but should have taken at least one of those chances and let Boys' Town chase us for the rest of the game."

Waterhouse, lining up with a three-man attack of Jermaine Anderson, Gary McIntosh and Peter Keys, were indeed the dominant team in the early exchanges as Boys' Town struggled to deal with their slick off-the-ball movements.

Wide men McIntosh and Keys provided the width for midfielder Hugh Howell to exploit with some neat through balls, but the striker just came up short inside the box.

The Drewsland side should have gone ahead on 25 minutes, but livewire Damarly Samuels could only manage to drag his effort wide of Kirk Porter's far post.