Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
WILSON
A 34TH minute strike by Kevin 'Pele' Wilson, gave Arnett Gardens a crucial 1-0 away win over Portmore United in their Red Stripe Champions Cup knockout first-leg clash at Ferdie Neita Park, while Reno were held to a goalless draw by Sandy Bay at Frome.
With the second leg set for two weeks' time, the advantage is with Arnett Gardens and Sandy Bay, after securing favourable results.
In the feature game of the day, Arnett took four passes to score a beautiful goal on a counter-attack following a Portmore corner. It was precision passing at its best.
TEAM EFFORT
Winston Griffiths collected a clearance at the edge of the Arnett box before passing to Patrick Beech who, in turn, passed to Jonathan Williams on the left and his pin-point cross was met by the charging Wilson in full flight, who calmly slotted past the advancing Shawn Sawyers in goal.
It was a richly deserved goal as Arnett Gardens were creating the better clear-cut chances in the first half.
But the second half was a totally different affair as the home team pressed for the equaliser but was kept at bay by the competent Allan Reid in goal. Portmore carved open the Arnett backline on several occasions but could not find that crucial goal.
Winning coach Michael Tulloch was pleased with the victory after avenging his team's 3-0 whipping in the Premier League two weeks ago.
"It is really a pleasing thing to come here to their home ground and defeat them. But it is not over yet. This is just a slight advantage going into the second leg," Tulloch said.
"But we have to play with more discipline in order to maintain our advantage and go to the semi-finals," he noted.
WOEFUL FINISHING
Meanwhile, losing coach Paul Young blamed his team's demise on its slow start and woeful finishing. "We started the game bad and we weren't pressuring them as we had planned. We gave them too much room
to play in the first half and that showed in the result," Young said.
"The second half we dominated and had numerous chances and I thought we should have had a penalty but that's how the ball goes. It was just one of those days, their keeper came up big and congrats to Arnett. They played hard and won the game," he said.
In today's games, Harbour View will host Tivoli Gardens at 7:00 p.m. while Rivoli welcome Waterhouse to the Spanish Town Prison Oval at 4:30.
