Tivoli Gardens preyed on the opportunity of Arnett Gardens’ not having a coach and eked out a close 1-0 win over their fierce rivals in the Digicel Premier League (DPL) encounter at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Sunday night.

Christopher Jackson’s 45th minute strike was enough to hand Tivoli Gardens a crucial away win and maximum points in an encounter that could have gone either way.

Tivoli Gardens, with their sixth win from eight games, moved into second position on 18 points, just one behind the leaders Waterhouse, but more importantly, they have a game in hand against Humble Lion.

Arnett Gardens, who had a very good first half, were suffering their third home defeat from four games and their fourth overall, slipped a spot to ninth with nine points.

The former three-time champions are just three above the relegation zone and with just five goals scored from nine matches, a lot of soul searching is needed.

In front of a large crowd at the Anthony Spaulding Complex, where Boys’ Town and Portmore had battled to a 1-1 draw in the curtain raiser, home team Arnett Gardens came out firing.

Playing without a head coach following Wayne Fairclough’s resignation last Thursday, Arnett Gardens, under the guidance of general manager Richard ‘Charlie Chaplin’ Bennett, showed a lot on intensity in a good first half display.

The promising James Durrant partnered Leon Strickland upfront with Daniel Shaw pulling the strings in the middle, along with Kirk Ramsey.

Former national striker Fabian Dawkins was again on the bench, while Ricardo Stern was relegated to the bench.

But it was Tivoli Gardens who got the first real goalscoring chance in the 16th minute when Keammar Daley whistled his effort just wide from close range.

Strickland responded a minute later, but goalkeeper Edsel Scott did well to deny him.

But just as the hosts gained the ascendancy and looked the more likely team to score, Tivoli Gardens struck on the stroke of half time.

Jackson’s powerful low, long range shot was turned around the goal post for a corner by Julian McLeish, but the following corner kick fell to Jackson, who made no mistake, side-footing home from just inside the box.

That goal seemed to have killed Arnett’s spirit as they never looked like the same attacking team in the second period.

In fact, they could have lost by a wider margin, as Devon Hodges began to impose himself on the game and along with Kevin Blackford, substitutes Kevin Deerr and Michael Spence got a few half chances.