Valour FC’s troubles at home have them positively stuck and losing traction with the rest of the clubs in the Canadian Premier League standings.

Valour FC gave up two goals in the first 15 minutes at IG Field and then another pair five minutes apart in the second half in a 4-2 loss at IG Field Wednesday night, dropping their record to two wins, four draws and four losses through 10 matches.

Cavalry opened the scoring when a shot deflected off Stefan Cebara in the fourth minute and followed that up with a goal 11 minutes later by Sergio Camargo.

Chilean forward Walter Poncé cut into the Cavalry lead with his first CPL goal in the 56^th minute, but any hopes of a rally were snuffed out when Mason Trafford and Aribim Pepple in the 60^thand 65^th minutes.

Asked to assess his squad’s performance afterward, GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos pointed to the club’s ineffectiveness in defending set plays, which led to three of Cavalry’s goals.

“Simple – three set plays, where we’ve been good throughout the season… and then a mistake (on the second goal),” he began. “There’s things that you can do when you’re playing at the park with you friends. There’s others that you can’t. This is a pro team and there’s things that you can’t do and the mistake on the second goal can’t happen.”

The loss ended a three-match homestand for Valour in which the club lost twice and drew once. Overall this year Valour has just one win, two draws and two losses at IG Field.

Cavalry FC, meanwhile, notched its third straight win and in going unbeaten in seven matches with six wins and a draw has now vaulted past both Pacific FC and Atlético Ottawa into first place overall in the CPL with 20 points on a 6-2-2 mark.

“When you’re chasing a result there’s this natural instinct where players start cheating two yards here, two yards there because they’re hoping the team is going to win the ball and then they’re already a few yards ahead of the opposition,” said Dos Santos. “A lot of times we played in that mode and it’s hard. It’s hard like that.”

Valour gets what might be a perfectly-timed break now, with their next match not coming until June 26^th as part of a road trip that will take them to Southern Ontario and includes a visit to Forge FC on June 29^th.

“We have to work. We have to make sure we go back to simple things where we understand where our references are and make sure we don’t over-complicate things for the players,” Dos Santos said. “Everyone understands where we’re at and the urgency that we’re getting into.

“… We have to push them. We have to stay positive, but not have a false sense that things are OK because we know there’s work to be done.”

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‘V’ NOTES:

-Valour was without D Andrew Jean-Baptiste (Haitian national team); MFL Matthew Catavolo (Canada U-20 team); while MF Diego Gutierrez was serving a suspension for yellow-card accumulation.

-MF Daryl Fordyce was a late scratch from the starting lineup and in his place veteran Brett Levis wore the captain’s band.

-Poncé’s goal came after some solid work by the club’s new forward.

“Poncé was the most-positive thing that we saw tonight with the team,” said Dos Santos. “When things aren’t going your way you need to find ‘What was positive here? What did we gain today?’ You’re seeing Poncé growing more and more every game. Today was probably his best game.”

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VALOUR FC 2 CAVALRY FC 4

GOALS:

Valour FC

55:57’: Walter Ponce (assist: Moses Dyer)

90+2:38’: Matteo de Brienne

Cavalry FC

3:17’: Own goal (shot deflected off Stefan Cebara)

14:54’: Sergio Camargo

59:43’: Mason Trafford (assist: Daan Klomp)

64:01’: Aribim Pepple

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CARD SUMMARY

Valour FC:

37:24’: Jacob Carlos (yellow, reckless offence)

50:49’: Stefan Cebara (yellow, reckless offence)

78:04’: Federico Pena (yellow, reckless offence)

Cavalry FC

44:41’: Sergio Camargo (yellow, dissent)

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VALOUR STARTING XI

GK Jonathan Sirois

D Andy Baquero

D Stefan Cebara

D Rocco Romeo

D Federico Pena

MF Brett Levis – C

MF: Jacob Carlos

MF: Moses Dyer

FW Sean Rea

FW William Akio

F Walter Ponce

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Valour substitutions:

45:00’ – On Alex Riggi; off Jacob Carlos

81:18’ – On Tony Mikhael; off Andy Baquero

81:34’ – On Matteo de Brienne; off Sean Rea.