ARNETT Gardens Women hold a one-goal advantage heading into the return match following their 3-2 win over Los Perfectos in the first leg of the Jamaica Women’s Premier League semi-finals on Saturday, but head coach Garnett Lawrence was left disappointed with their profligacy in front of goal.

Opposing coach, Ricardo Martin was beaming with optimism as they remain in the two-legged tie courtesy of a late goal that gave them hope.

Playing on the astro synthetic turf at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, Arnett Gardens scored after two minutes and were leading 3-1 courtesy of a double strike from Shikira Douglas and Taunashae Hamilton. They had chances to extend that lead but were wasteful; eventually, veteran Venicia Reid pulled one back for Los Perfectos a minute before the end of regulation time, making it 3-2.

“It could have been a wide advantage,” said Lawrence, appearing a little dejected after the final whistle. “But I mean, this is the semi-finals and no team is giving up, especially the females. When it comes to females, they don’t give up. Even if they’re down 6-0, they don’t give up. We needed more. We needed a lot more. I know the astro turf has some effect on them.

“But we’ll find out in the evening, next week. We’ll go back home and we’ll do a little thing and do some more practising. We’ll get it right. But from where it stands, you’ll find a great possibility for both teams,” he added.

With Arnett leading 3-1 and controlling the game, things looked bleak for Los Perfectos, but their maverick player, Reid, pounced and scored her second goal of the game and her 21st of the season. It was arguably her most important goal of the season as it keeps Los Perfectos’s season alive.

“It was a massive goal,” said Martin. “As I said, it’s just that the higher the mountain was, [the more challenging the task, but] now with that goal [being scored,] it’s a bit lower. So for us now [the mindset is] it’s just one goal and don’t think too far ahead. But, we’re back in it and then we take it from there.

“It’s just a goal now. It’s just for us now to go back to the drawing board, analyse this game, and see where we could have done better — because we had a lot of chances today and we didn’t put them away. The team is young and they will learn from it,” the Los Perfectos coach added.

Reid, a former national player, has been carrying Los Perfectos on her back but Coach Martin believes the Los Perfectos squad has more to offer.

“She has a lot of people around her, and it’s part of it. She has come back in the league after so long, and the thing is that she’s bringing them. And it’s only going to be good for women’s football to have somebody like her playing around with them so we just continue, and see how best we can get back into it, and hopefully we can finish this time,” he added.