Arnett Gardens moved back to the top of the Red Stripe Premier League points standing with 13 points following their hard fought 1-0 victory against Cavalier at the Anthony Spaulding Sport Complex on Thursday.

Recent signing Kemal Malcolm gave the junglists the all important win in the 12th minute. The goal was as a result of an earlier powerful shot from Leon Strickland that rebounded into play from the underside of the crossbar and the upright and fell to Malcolm, who from an overhead kick put Arnett Gardens ahead.

Arnett Gardens took control of the game from the first whistle and continued to dominate play for the most part, but poor shooting prevented them from going farther ahead.

But credit should go to the visitors defenders Kirk Fletcher, Michael Stone and Andre Forbes, along with goalkeeper David Mitchell to keep the deficit to a single goal, despite losing the key services of Ajuran Brown seven minutes before the break.

The visitors returned for the second half rampant and it was only their poor finishing which prevented them from at least taking a point from the game as they had the defence of their hosts battling for survival at the final whistle.

Despite having to defend for practically the duration of the second half a confident Paul ‘Tegat’ Davis, coach of Arnett Gardens, declared that he was confident that Arnett Gardens would have won the game. “We had expected a type of game like this. We expect Cavalier to come and play against Arnett Gardens. We played them in a lot of practice games and it was always like this. So I expected us to win tonight.”

Cavalier’s coach David Laylor praised his players for a good showing and believes with time his young team will get better rewards for effort when its shooting skills are better honed. “We would have liked to finish the game with at least a point, but I was encouraged by our play, especially in the second half where there were very positive signs in our play…but as you can see it is all about our finishing and I am confident that soon we will make that adjustment.”

Teams: Arnett Gardens — Damion Hyatt, William Richard, Dwayne Gaynor, Odaine Simpson, Jason Moore, Richardo Oldham, Leon Strickland (Marcelino Blackburn 57th), Lamar Nelson, Kemal Malcolm (Newton Sterling 72nd), Kirk Ramsay, Vishinul Harris (Dennis McKinley 72nd)

Subs not used: O Dixon, A Allen, G Neil, V Manning

Booked: Moore (25th), Nelson (29th), Harris (72nd)

Cavalier: David Mitchell, Michael Stone, Andre Forbes, Kirk Fletcher, Ajuran Brown (Geovaune Samuda 38th), Girvan Brown, Mitchily Waul, Rasheed Clarke (Troyland Williams 65th), Michealous Martin, Claudious Blackburn (Fabian Nethersole 70th), Clevonne Marsh

Subs not used: E Scarlett, K Lamey, J Nicolas, R Thompson

Booked: Forbes (45th)

Referee: Courtney Campbell

Referee Assistants: Keble Williams, Lloyd Reader

Fourth Official: Hugh Rankine

Match Commissary: Charles Barrett