Audley Boyd, Assistant Sports Editor

Tivoli Gardens striker Jermaine Gray (right) races to put pressure on Waterhouse central defender Desmond Breakenridge during their Cash Plus Premier League match at Edward Seaga Sports Complex on Wednesday. Gray scored as Tivoli won 1-0. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

JERMAINE GRAY doesn't get much playing time to even think of being a match-winner.

Despite this, the Tivoli Gardens striker had big plans for Waterhouse before their Cash Plus Premier League match at Edward Seaga Sports Complex on Wednesday.

After leaving Constant Spring, where he spent two seasons, the central Kingston resident joined Waterhouse and hopped on to glory as the team wended its way to the Premier League title with a miraculous chase - coming 13 points off the pace to beat Harbour View in a tremendous stretch run that earned them the title.

Not even that achievement could keep him at Waterhouse, as another year on the bench was simply not to his liking.

His opportunity

Every coach knows that a player saves his biggest game for his former club. It was a fact not lost on the 21-year-old Gray, even though his hopes of playing were small, given the rare minutes he has had at his new club.

Opportunities come in strange ways sometimes though, and on Wednesday it certainly did.

Tivoli were reduced to 10 players in the 28th minute when another, Jermaine Taylor, was given a red card by referee Kevin Morrison for giving Waterhouse's Mario Harrison a boxer-styled gash under the right eye with the elbow.

Tivoli's other strikers, Horace Howell and Roberto Fletcher, who also just transferred from Water-house, ran themselves into the ground while the minutes wore down in a rough, open game that seemed destined for a draw following a spate of missed scoring chances.

Fletcher was so tired that with only four minutes of normal time remaining, coach Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey pulled him and let loose Gray.

A perfect grounder

Positioned at the top of the 18-yard box and centre of goal, with his first touch - off a deft pass from fellow sub Navion Boyd - Gray set up the ball nicely, then hit a perfect grounder wide of goalkeeper Richard McCallum into the far side of the goal for the winner.

"I was planning to be the man today," admitted Gray, a one-time Calabar All-Age student. "It was my former club."

He added: "I'm feeling good because from early in the week, I've been telling myself that I was going to do it. I feel really good about myself."

"He's (Gray) working really hard in training, but I haven't been giving him enough time," said coach Bailey. "Fletcher worked hard and got tired, and with the tiring of Fletcher, I put him in earlier today and he scored."

For Gray, he's now reaping the benefits of perseverance.

"The coach has been telling me that patience is the key. It paid off today, he brought me on and I did the job.

"This one goal will motivate me a lot so at the end of the season, you can expect more from Jermaine Gray."