ORCHARD PARK, New York – Veteran Reggae Boy frontman Dane Kelly struck a dramatic second-half brace off the bench to break a stalemate at Highmark Stadium and fire Pittsburgh Riverhounds to a 2-0 win over Loudoun United last weekend.
With the game wandering, the 31-year-old entered the contest at the hour mark. It made a near-instant impact with a goal five minutes later before securing the points for the hosts in the 73rd minute to keep them unbeaten in their four opening games of the new United Soccer League season.
Pittsburgh lies second in the Eastern Conference on 10 points, on the heels of unbeaten leaders Louisville City on 11 points which drew nil-all with Birmingham Legion away at Protective Stadium.
The defeat for Loudoun United was their first and left them fifth in the Eastern Conference on seven points.
Kelly took all the plaudits; however, the Jamaican notching his 101st and 102nd USL Championship goals to move his tally to three for the campaign.
“Dane’s a goal scorer, so as long as you’re getting him service, he’ll be dangerous,” said Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley.
“In the first 20 to 25 minutes, we had a lot of attacking possessions, but I did not think we did well enough to get in.
“We kept cutting back into the middle. The adjustment at half-time was that we needed to get around the corner and pull their center backs apart. I thought we did a better job with that, which allowed us to cross some balls into the face of the goal.
“We were more complete on the ball in the second half, which was the difference.”
With Pittsburgh applying pressure, their persistence finally paid off when Hugh Alexander Dixon poked a pass-through to the top of the 18-yard box and found Kelly, who laid off to Albert Dikwa, before drilling home the return pass from point-blank range.
The second goal arrived eight minutes later, fellow Jamaican Kenardo Forbes swinging a corner into the six-yard box for Kelly to elude his marker and nod past goalkeeper Luis Zamudio.
“As a striker, the plan, whether you are starting or coming off the bench, is to try to score goals,” Kelly said.
“[The first goal] was easy because Dikwa did all the hard work, and I just finished the chance.”
And of the second goal, he added: “That’s something we’ve been working on in practice is crosses, and tonight it paid off. I told [Forbes] to put it near post, and I’d finish it off.”
and then 