Arnett ends second round with win over Vere United

ST JAMES, Jamaica-Despite being forced to work harder than they expected, Arnett Gardens got what they wanted- all three points- after a 2-0 win over Vere United in their Jamaica Premier League second round game played at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Monday.

An early goal from Fabian Reid and a late one to secure the points, from the league’s top scorer Warner Brown, secured the win for second-placed Arnett Gardens against relegation threatened Vere United.

Arnett Gardens’ assistant coach Fabian Taylor, who was in charge in the absence of Xavier Gilbert, admitted that despite dominating possession of the ball and creating more scoring chances, they did not take advantage by scoring more goals.

“We made it a little bit difficult,” he told the Observer Online, “it was the last game of the round and we rested some players and gave others a run out but nevertheless we got all three points and that was what we came for kudos to the boys they played hard.”

Vere United’s head coach Lenworth Hyde said their poor defence and lack of scoring let them down once again, “We played some (good) football tonight,” he pointed out, “but we gave up a goal in the first two minutes of the game that was a setback for us and another mistake at the end, that has been haunting us all season.”

"We are not defending properly...we are not scoring goals and that is why we are in the position we are,” he said of the team in 14th position and whose most recent win came in early January, 10 games ago.

All was not lost however, he said.

“We just have to continuing working, we have 13 more games to go and we have to try and get the most points we can out of them, have to keep working and see if the players can get it right,” said Hyde.

Arnett Gardens promised much when they started brightly with Reid firing past goalkeeper Richardo White in third minute, scoring his third goal of the season.

They had to wait until the 86th minute for the other goal when Brown who came off the bench punished the Vere United defense for an error.

Michael Forbes who had a good game at central defence, failed to get the ball away smoothly and when he lost control of the ball momentarily, that was all the time Brown needed to push it past the defender and fire it past White, cementing all three points for Arnett Gardens.

-          Paul Reid