DRAX HALL, St Ann — Arnett Gardens Coach Paul “Tegat” Davis insists that he is no genius, “just a football coach”. But he managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat on Monday when two strategic substitutions saw his team beat Dunbeholden FC 2-1 in their Jamaica Premier League game powered by Digicel at Drax Hall Sports Complex in St Ann.

Teenager Luca Kung and Damari Deacon came off the bench to score in the second half as Arnett Gardens won for the third straight round and leap-frogged Dunbeholden FC into third place on 14 points.

Atapharoy Bygrave, also a substitute, scored his league-leading sixth goal in time added for Dunbeholden FC, who are a point adrift in fourth place, but are going in a different direction from Arnett Gardens.

Davis was visibly upset coming out of a water break midway the first half and ordered several players to warm up as he made adjustments to his team, eventually getting the results they needed.

“We need to play the ball around,” he told the Jamaica Observer after the game. “The changes in the midfield made the difference; in the first half our midfield did not want the football.”

The veteran Davis said he was strategic with the use of his better players who, despite not being at full fitness, did what they were asked.

“Also, because of the players we had, we had to save the better players. They did not have much conditioning but their contributions were good.”

It was a different story on the other bench as the Dunbeholden players bickered at each other and Coach Harold Thomas said they had to go back to basics if they were to return to their early success that saw them win three of their first four games.

Dunbeholden FC were at least equal to Arnett Gardens in the first half, pushing them back in their own half, but were disappointing in the second half. Thomas was at a loss as to what happened.

“It’s difficult to say what happened in the second half. I don’t know if the surface had anything to do with it. The ball wasn’t flowing as much but we played a terrible second half,” he told the Observer.

Dunbeholden FC had the better of Arnett Gardens in the first half-hour, forcing Davis to bring on 19-year-old Kung, but it was the St Catherine team that were pulling the strings and Deandre Thomas came close from about 25 yards but his shot flew just wide.

It was a different story after the break as Kung bulled his way to the top of the Dunbeholden FC penalty area and beat goalkeeper Damion Hyatt with a vicious left footer.

Romeo Guthrie should have put Arnett Gardens up 2-0 four minutes later but his toe poke of the ball from about three yards out, with just Hyatt to beat, trickled wide of the far left post.

Renaldo Cephas, who had a good game for Arnett Gardens, headed over the bar in the 60th minute after Steve Clarke had crossed from the right side.

Deacon, who had replaced Clarke in the 75th minute, got the second goal in the 80th minute, all but securing the points.

Bygrave, who had entered the game in the 63rd minute, pulled one back for Dunbeholden when he just managed to get the ball across the line at the left post, four minutes into time added.

Teams:

Arnett Gardens FC — Maximus Davis, Jonoy Cunningham, Ezran Simpson, Earl Simpson, Ajuma Johnson, Marlon Martin, Romeo Guthrie, Shande James (Luca Kung-27th), Steve Clarke (Damari Deacon-75th), Kimani Arbourne (Marlon Allen-70th), Renaldo Cephas (Rushike Nelson-86th)

Subs not used: William Price, Shemar Boothe, Ronaldo Wright, Oneil Anderson, Nathan Thomas

Booked: Cephas-(42nd), Ezron Simpson (75th), Deacon (80th)

Dunbeholden FC — Damion Hyatt, Shaquile Dyer, Fabian McCarthy, Shaun Dewar, Romario McPherson, Zhelano Barnes (Kimoni Bailey-68th), Demario Phillips, Rushawn Taylor (Atapharoy Bygrave-63rd), Dwayne Smith (Roshane Myrie-73rd), Deandre Thomas, Nikoy Christian

Subs not used: Ronaldinho Small, Shakeen Powell, Andre Dyce

Booked: Phillips-50th, McPherson-86th,

Referee: Alexi Perry

Assistants: Jermaine Yee-Sing, Garvin Carvalho

Fourth official: Kevon Gayle

Match commissary: Patrick Malcolm

— Paul Reid