MAY PEN, Clarendon — Donovan Duckie, the Humble Lion coach, has named the veteran midfielder Wolry Wolfe his Man-of-the-Match.

But it was Devon Hodges who shone brightest on Monday night, as the Clarendon side, moving from relegation strugglers to semi-final contenders, trade places with Arnett Gardens — not the top of the Red Stripe Premier League, but at the top of the form table — with a thrilling 2-1 victory over the league leaders at the Effortville Community Centre.

Hodges, appearing to be returning to the form that afforded him iconic status at Rivoli United, was involved in both goals, while also displaying tremendous penalty area nous and leg-work on and off the ball.

His first major contribution came on the half-hour.

Leading a swift counter-attack, the burly striker released his captain Jermaine Christian down the left channel. Christian, said to be celebrating his birthday on the night, received the ball in his stride and, with a shimmy to his left, then another to his right, slipped past his marker to set up a wonderful shooting opportunity on his favoured right foot.

The resultant effort, hit with tremendous venom at the near post, left goalkeeper Peter Harrison diving to his right, to grasp at air.

For the second, Hodges played a more customary role. This time he was serving justice to a nicely weighted Wolry Wolfe cross by directing a decent enough, but savable, header towards goal. Yet instead of producing a routine save, Harrison, a former Humble Lion ‘keeper, spilled the ball into his own net — and not even the desperate effort of his covering defender could prevent the ball from crossing the goal-line.

Between both goals, Humble Lion had been reduced to 10 men, after midfielder Andrew Vanzie was shown a second yellow card for a stupid two-footed lunge on an opponent, who had posed no immediate danger to his team. But rather than wilting under the pressure, the Humble Lion charges managed to display the discipline that their teammate lacked in thwarting Arnett’s advances, before Hodges landed what amounted to the knockout blow 10 minutes into the second half.

“This victory is very important to us, in terms of what we want to accomplish,” said Duckie. “We have just ended Arnett’s 11-game unbeaten run, and now we are 10 games unbeaten, so it is good for the confidence of the players and the entire community.”

But he added: “It was a very difficult game for us, especially after the red card. They were very high on confidence; they had lots of possession, so they kept coming at us. We had to switch (tactics).”

Duckie was correct.

Arnett did end the game as the more offensive team, with coach Jerome Waite making three attacking substitutions — bringing on Marvin Morgan, Marcelino Blackburn and Kemal Malcolm. And, even when all seemed lost, they continued to probe Humble Lion’s rearguard until the last minute of the contest, by which time Blackburn’s consolation strike, in time added, had renewed their hopes of a comeback.

The former Charlie Smith Manning Cupper intelligently opened his body to dissect a crowded Humble Lion penalty area with a simple, yet scrumptious shot into the bottom, right-hand corner of Damion Crooks’ net. While the result, at this stage, was pretty much cast in stone, the remaining three minutes of stoppage time did serve up an edgy affair. And there was the distinct impression that the huge home crowd, which Waite described as Humble Lion’s 12th man, was only a shot away from suffering a collective heart failure. In the end, though, the Effortville faithful were in party mode.

Their team, having improved their tally to 32 points, are just two points off a play-off spot in fifth place — thanks to a superior goal difference to Rivoli and Tivoli Gardens, who, in sixth and seventh respectively, are also both on 32. And with defending champions Montego Bay United, in third, just four points above this trio, the scenario heading into the third and final round of preliminary games now sets up an intriguing semi-final hunt.

Boosted by the scalp of ending Arnett’s 11-game unbeaten streak, Humble Lion will now think that momentum is on their side. And they will go into their next game looking to equal Arnett’s run. Yet even if they do replicate the feat, by at least avoiding defeat to Reno at Effortville on Sunday, it won’t have the same sparkle.

Arnett, who remain four points clear at the summit on 45, set their record by using a 5-0 defeat to Montego Bay in November as motivation for a 10-game winning run, which, incidentally, was ended by the title holders in a 0-0 stalemate in January. Should they use this latest setback as another fillip for a similar run, they will at least be assured of ending the competition as preliminary-round champions.