Daraine Luton, Freelance Writer 
RICARDO MAKYN, Staff Photographer
Arnett Gardens midfielder Jonathan Williams (No.28) dribbles under pressure from Portmore United's Wolry Wolfe (left) and Ricardo Smith during their Wray and Nephew National Premier League game at Ferdie Neita Park yesterday. Arnett won 2-0.
KEVIN 'PELE' Wilson notched his fifth Wray and Nephew National Premier League goal and Patrick Beech got his first league goal in the Arnett Gardens shirt yesterday, helping the 'Junglists' to a 2-0 win over Portmore United at Ferdie Neita Park.
Beech netted in the 64th minute, getting on the end of a Winston Griffiths pass to lob Jacomena Barrett in the Portmore goal. On the stroke of full-time, Wilson, who hit the crossbar earlier, beat Barrett with a powerful drive from the top of the penalty area, after effecting a solo dribble which saw him leaving defenders Tyrone Sawyers and Leon Williams for dead.
HOPES DASHED
Arnett's win poisoned whatever hopes Portmore had of qualifying for the first End of Round Final, although it would not have mattered since the number one contender, Waterhouse, did their business at home with a 4-1 win over Constant Spring.
For Arnett, who had no hope of getting through to the final, victory meant three additional points which pushed their tally to 20 the same as Portmore.
Their coach, Jerome Waite, said it was just what they were looking for.
"It is about accumulating as many points as possible to stay in touch with the leaders," Waite said.
"When we came here we knew that if we could have gotten a point from them it would have been good but we definitely came here for three points and the players stuck to the task, played to expectations and applied themselves tactically. It was a very disciplined performance," he said.
The game was attacking from start to end. Portmore relied heaving on the skills and pace of Kevin Deerr and Wolry Wolfe to take the ball forward but the final passes were lacking for the most part and in cases where the strikers were properly fed, the finishing was often poor.
GREAT SERVICE
On the other hand, central midfielder Locksley Thomas was Arnett's main distribution man and he gave great service to the likes of Jermaine Benjamin, Jonathan Williams, Kwame Richardson and Griffiths.
Even though it was Wilson and Beech who came up with the goals, Portmore's misfortunes rested particularly in the gloves of Arnett's custodian, Julian 'Rammy' McLeish, who came up with some brilliant saves to keep the homesters at bay.
Waite said his team's first round performance is credible but felt they "fell short by about five points because the whole objective was 25 points".
Meanwhile, Lenworth Hyde Snr., Portmore United's coach said: "I am most disappointed. We played at home and went down 0-2."
He said that the absence of utility player Anthony Modeste, Demar Stewart and Shawn Sawyers hurt his side but his "young team played well" nonetheless.
Hyde added that he would have wanted to win in order "to say closer to the top but now we have to wheel and come again in the second round".
