Arnett Gardens……………………2

Gillespie (22nd), Wilson (90th)

Portmore United………………….1

Mundle (39th)

Pandemonium broke out at the Digicel Premier League game between Arnett Gardens and Portmore United at the Anthony Spaulding Sport Complex on Sunday.

A dispute developed over an extra-time goal which gave Arnett Gardens a 2-1 win and full points against nine-man Portmore as goalkeeper Dwayne Kerr was red carded for his role in the protest. Earlier, Ricardo Cousins got his marching orders in the 74th minute.

Portmore picked up another five cards of the eight issued. Arnett Gardens had two players shown the yellow card.

Coach Fabian Davis was pleased with the way his team played and was happy with the three points. “Total football we played this afternoon. You can see from the get-go we were calm and played with a lot of patience,” he said.

Asked what actually took place with the final goal to cause the upheaval Davis said: “The referee does not necessarily have to blow his whistle for you to take a free-kick and a goal is a goal; we are happy for the three points.”

Portmore coach Linval Dixon said: “My understanding was that the referee instructed the players to wait until the whistle was blown before the kick was taken. They (Arnett Gardens) did not wait until the whistle was blown. They did not wait and they scored and the goal was given to them. What can I say it was unfortunate as our team worked hard, fought hard but at the end of it all we lost the game because of an error of judgement.”

During a vigorous protest and what appeared to be threatening gestures from goalkeeper Kerr who led the protest against referee Lewin Purser, the towering goalkeeper was shown the yellow card. But he protested some more and was shown the card a second time.

With the expulsion of Kerr, the game resumed for another minute or so before Purser called a halt to play, but he had to be escorted off the field by security personnel as enraged Portmore players encircled him in a threatening manner.

Meanwhile, Garfield Gillespie opened the scoring for the victors in the 22nd minute, followed by an equalising strike by Portmore’s Shauntel Mundle in the 39th. Kevin Wilson delivered the killer and controversial strike in minute 90.

Teams:

Arnett Gardens – Leighton Murray, Anthowe Dawkins,Nicora Plummer, Rasheede Clarke, Garfield Gillespie, Cornel Chin-Sue, Nicholas Dodd, Leon Strickland, Kwame Richardson (Severo Murphy 78th), Kevin King (Lennox Creary 89th), Kevin Wilson

Subs not used: D Hyatt, W Richards, R Reid, J Gray

Booked: Dawkins (34th), King (54th)

Portmore United – Dwayne Kerr, Adrian Mitchell, Sheldon Battiste, Wolry Wolfe, Mario Swaby (Kemeel Wolfe 80), Ricardo Cousin, Shauntel Mundle, Michael Binns, Carlington Smith (Cornelius Henry 85), Roen Nelson, Christopher Nicholas (Steven Morrissey 70)

Subs not used: G McPherson, K Bennett, O Campbell,

Booked: Mitchell (15th), Mundle (21st), Swaby (58th), W Wolfe (66th), Cousin (red-carded 74th), Kerr (red-carded 90th)

Referee: Lewin Purser

Assistants: Malachai Brown, Lloyd Edwards

Fourth Official: Patrick McPherson

Match Commissary: Charles Barrett