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Arnett Gardens opened the goalscoring floodgates in the second half of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) third-place match to turn back Montego Bay United 4-2 yesterday at the National Stadium.
A brace each from Shai Smith (57th, 71st) and Fabian Reid (72nd, 81st) saw the Junglists take the third-place spot in the JPL for the third year in a row.
Brian Brown’s brace (68th, 90th) proved to be consolation efforts at the end.
Xavier Gilbert, head coach of Arnett, said the game went according to their game plan and was happy to end the season with their heads held high.
“Sometimes when you analyse teams and you have your plan and it works, it looks good,” he said.
“We have to give credit to the way we executed the game.”
Montego Bay’s Peter-Lee Vassell perhaps had the best chance of the game in the first half when he rounded the onrushing goalkeeper before curling an effort at goal. His shot on target was, however, cleared off the line by an excellent display of last-ditch defending from Ricardo Thomas.
It was a game of two halves for the Junglists as after an ineffective first half, they found their shooting boots in the second stanza to end their JPL campaign on a high.
Smith opened the scoring in the 57th minute with a well-placed header at the back post, finishing off a pinpoint delivery from Rushike Kelson.
Brown would bring parity to the match as he responded with a wonder strike from just inside the box after a inventive free-kick routine with Vassell.
Just three minutes later, Smith would again put Arnett in the lead.
This time, he fired a curling effort which surprised the Montego Bay custodian as he reacted just a second too late.
Arnett would get their third less than a minute later as an interception from Kelson straight from the restart resulted in Reid running through on goal and finishing expertly to the far post.
FROM BAD TO WORSE
Montego Bay’s afternoon would go from bad to worse in the 78th minute as Odain Nish was shown the red card after a moment of frustration saw him striking Arnett’s Jamone Shepherd in the face.
Reid sealed the win as with a routine finish, he slotted home his team’s fourth after the ball was rolled into his path by Thomas.
Brown would spare some blushes as he cut the deficit to two in the final moments of the match when he struck home from a corner.
Paul ‘Tegat’ Davis, head coach for Montego Bay, sought to focus on the positives after the match as he described the performance as “just one of those games”.
“It is just one of those games,” he said. “It could have gone anyway but the mindset of the players and all those things come in. It’s just football. I’m really proud of them. I think we gave a good run this season. We could have been better but nevertheless, it is good.”
With the win, Arnett qualified for the Caribbean Football Union Club Shield where they will look to defend their regional title.
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