Champions Arnett Gardens FC carved out a fighting 2-1 win against former champions Portmore United FC in a high-intensity second-round Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) game at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Monday night to keep the pressure up on their opponents.

However, despite the loss, Portmore United continue to lead the RSPL standing on 43 points. Arnett Gardens are a point away second.

To obtain the narrow but important win, the defending champions had to dig deep to withstand a torrid second half, emblazoned by a feverish attacking play from Portmore and spiked with a nail-biting final 15 minutes, to get the narrow victory with first-half goals from Leon Strickland and Newton Sterling.

Portmore made a brisk start to the second half with a splendidly taken goal by Jovan East in the first three minutes of the half but, there endeth their goal-scoring challenge.

It was the third consecutive top-two finish, in the second round of the competition by the defending champions and head coach Jerome Waite was most pleased with the team’s performance on the night. “We seemed to be struggling in the final part of our game when captain and inspirational leader and defender Oniel Thompson had to leave the field of play due a head injury. However, I must applaud the efforts of the two late substitutes in Andrew Phang and Neicko Williams for a performance that helped the team preserve what was, in fact, a very good victory.”

Geoffrey Hewitt, though failing to achieve his main objective “to beat the best”, said: “It was a really competitive game. We might have lost the game but it does show that we can compete amongst the best and do well. To be the best you must beat the best. We definitely wanted to beat Arnett Gardens tonight (Monday night) because they are the defending champions but that did not happen.

“Nonetheless, there are some positives that we can take from the game: Admittedly, the two first-half goals were a setback to our plans. But even so, we never gave up. And considering the circumstances, I thought that we did extremely well in the second half by scoring an early goal to set up a keen, competitive game but just failed in our numerous efforts to score with other attempts that were on target.

“We continued to play well and keep the pressure upon our opponents with the introduction of two capable second-half changes. But this also failed to bring us the result we were after. The Arnett Gardens goalkeeper had a very good game between the uprights as well,” Hewitt observed.

Teams: Arnett Gardens FC – Damian Hyatt, Oniel Thompson (Jason Moore 82nd), Jabeur Johnson, Ranike Anderson, Renae Lloyd (Jamar Martin 63rd), Marvin Morgan, Kenniel Hyde, Vishinul Harris, Kemal Malcolm, Leon Strickland, Newton Sterling (Neicko Williams 75th)

Subs not used: Peter Harrison, Michaelos Martin, Andrew Phang, Marcelino Blackburn

Booked: Hyatt (25th), Lloyd (39th)

Portmore United FC – Shaven Sean Paul, Omar Daley, Dmono Solomon, Ryan Wellington, Kareem Manning, Roberto Johnson, Kemo Gayle (Ricardo Morris 46th), Ewan Grandison, Stephen Williams (Maalique Foster 61st), Paul Wilson, Jovan East

Subs not used: Donan Atkinson, Osani Ricketts, Rodian Jennings, Kambuji McCalla, Mark Alves,

Booked: Manning (6th), Johnson (55th), Foster (66th)

Referee: Valdin Legister

Assistant Referees: Richard Washington, Jeran Porteous

Fourth Official: Karl Tyrell

Match Commissioner: Michael Ricketts