Arnett Gardens' Marcelino Blackburn shields the ball from Tivoli Gardens' Dwight Herron during action in the Red Stripe Champions Cup match at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday.Tivoli Gardens won 1-0. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

BOYS' TOWN were held to a exciting 2-2 draw by Naggo Head in the first leg of the second round of the All-Island Red Stripe Champions Knockout competition at Collie Smith Drive yesterday.

In another game, a 70th minute strike from Nicholas McCreath and a 85th minute goal from Orane Simpson carried Tivoli Gardens to a 2-0 victory over arch-rivals Arnett Gardens.

In an entertaining first half at Collie Smith Drive, Jermaine Clarke gave the visitors the lead in the 13th minute when he dribbled his way past two Boys' Town defenders and fired home a powerful point-blank right-footed shot past goalkeeper Kirk Porter.

Spectacular save

A few minutes later, Boys' Town's Denzil Watson's close-range header was spectacularly saved by custodian Jacomeno Barrett.

However, Boys' Town's captain, Michael Campbell, equalised for the home team in the 25th minute with a thunderous right-footed blast which went like a rocket past Barrett and put the home crowd in a celebratory mood.

The Red Brigade then went ahead on the stroke of half-time, courtesy of an own goal from Naggo Head defender Andre Darby.

Ten minutes after the break, George Vernal thought he had sent the hosts further ahead but his long-range effort shaved the crossbar. A few seconds later, Naggo Head's Mark Newsome's 30-yard shot was tipped over the bar by Porter.

That miss proved costly as the visitors were awarded a penalty in the dying moments of the game after Porter brought Clarke inside the penalty box and Barrett converted the spot kick to give his team a share of the points.

Assistant coach of Boys' Town, Kerry Bartley, said he was disappointed with his team's effort. "I am a bit disappointed. But that's the way the game goes some times. We just have to try and work hard for the return leg and see if we can go over there and score at least two or three goals because we can't afford to draw the return leg," Bartley said.

Wayne Fairclough, coach of Naggo Head, said: "I am a happy man today knowing that we came from behind and we scored that penalty in the final 10 seconds of the game.

"It was a good game from the Boys' Town aggregation, but I think that we defended very stoutly and there were numerous occasions when we could have scored but faulty shooting let us down," he said.

Naggo Head	2
(Jermaine Clarke 13th, Jacomeno Barrett 90th) Boys' Town	2
(Michael Campbell 25th, Andre Darby 44th - own goal) Tivoli Gardens	2
(Nicholas McCreath 70th) Orane Simpson 85th Arnett Gardens	0