By Nodley Wright, Staff Reporter
Andre Hickling of Waterhouse races away from the goal in celebration after scoring the winner in the Jackie Bell KO final against Arnett Gardens. Wayne Ellis (left) and Alex Thomas look on helplessly as the ball kisses the net. Waterhouse won 1-0. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
A 17th MINUTE strike by Andre Hickling gave defending champions Waterhouse their fourth hold on the KSAFA Jackie Bell KO trophy when they defeated Arnett Gardens 1-0 at the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex.
The win pulled Waterhouse even with Arnett Gardens for most liens on the title. In addition to the trophy the victors pocketed $175,000 while the vanquished picked up $100,000.
It was a victory well-deserved by Waterhouse team whose performance sometimes brought a smile to the face of their Member of Parliament O.T. Williams. His counterpart Dr Omar Davies was not afforded such a luxury.
"It was long overdue, we wanted to win both (titles), we won one so we have to be satisfied," a delighted Calvert Fitzgerald said of his team's victory which followed last week's loss to Hazard United in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League end of second round final.
Fitzgerald who is in his first full season at the club was satisfied with the display put on by his players.
"It's my first full season with Waterhouse and I've won a title so I'm pleased. It was a pleasing performance from the players."
A disappointed Jerome Waite of Arnett Gardens felt that his team did not show up with the right frame of mind.
"Today the team didn't produce. It was a poor showing in all departments.
"The concentration was very low. They allowed a lot of distractions to carry them away. Not even our passing game got started any at all," Waite observed.
Waite was on the ball with his observation as from the get go, the defending champions who are dubbed 'Firehouse' played with a lot of fire in their bellies. They settled early and took the fight to the home team which looked slouchy, were always beaten to the ball and appeared in no mood for a fight save Cornel Chin-Sue, Gerald Neil and an occasional attempt by Walter Boyd.
Waterhouse made it clear early what approach they would take to the game as the usually overlapping wingbacks Damion Powell and Irvino English - English especially rarely went forward choosing instead to sit back and close down the flanks to Arnett Gardens.
With that done, Waterhouse launched their attacks from the midfield through the young, skilful and energetic trio of Damion Williams, Demar Phillips, Vincent Earl and Andre Hickling who played just behind Roberto Fletcher. Fletcher for his part was a constant menace to the Arnett defence and in particular O'neil Dunn who looked far from the finished article.
For the first 13 minutes it was largely one way traffic as most of the action took place in the Arnett half of the field. An acrobatic attempt by Jonathan Williams from a ball headed into the Waterhouse area by Jermaine Benjamin in the eighth minute did not come off.
When Waterhouse's goal did come, it came via a counter attack. A promising play involving Boyd who passed to Chin-Sue who in turn found Denton Shedden. With two goalscoring passes available to one of Boyd and Jermaine Benjamin, Shedden passed the ball behind Benjamin.
From well within his half, Earl played the ball to the left flank where Fletcher outsped Dunn, straightened and got close to the by-line before crossing for Hickling to react faster than Wayne Ellis, and inattentive Alex Thomas to sweep past Julian McLeish.
Towards the end of the half Arnett Gardens looked like a team and created two chances in the 29th minute. In the first instance the big goalkeeper Loxley Reid did well to block a low cross from Neil. Kevin Wilson fired the rebound wide.
Reid continued to prove a difficult man to get by. A 30-yard blast from Neil in the 37th minute was palmed back into play. This time Neil fired the rebound wide.
Waterhouse had the better of the second half but it was Arnett Gardens who had the early chances. Within five minutes of the resumption Kevin Wilson got a through ball from Boyd and instead of shooting early he waited, turned and lost possession.
Another opportunity was to come their way and this time Wilson chose to go himself instead of setting Jonathan Williams who was in a better position.
In a bid to improve the performance Waite introduced Fabian Davis, Alberto Fray and Michael Allen to no avail. Waterhouse brought on Weston Forrest, Leo Haughton and Desmond Breakenridge to stabilise the team.
The final minutes had close shaves for both teams as Mcleish had to be at his best to save and English corner while Allen had a shot which went just wide while Fray almost scored against his old team in the dying seconds.
