Damion Gordon, the Tivoli Gardens FC assistant coach, says the return of Glendon ‘Admiral’ Bailey to the technical staff is a “tremendous” lift as the club fights to stave off relegation.

Former national champions Tivoli, who were in the relegation zone at different stages in this campaign, are 10th in the 12-team table with 26 points from 24 games. The West Kingston-based side has won both games since Bailey took on the role as technical director in the aftermath of the firing of Head Coach Christopher Bender.

“Having ‘Admiral’ is a tremendous boost, especially because he knows every corner of the club. It is always good to have him back,” said Gordon.

Bailey, who coached Gordon only a few seasons ago, has guided Tivoli Gardens to the league title before.

This time around, the priority is to keep them in the nation’s top flight.

Sunday’s 2-1 win over semi-final aspirants Harbour View FC was another step toward that objective.

“We’re excited. I really put my hats off to the players because they deserve this. Sometimes it’s just the little that we can do as coaches and a lot in terms of what the players can do.

“Harbour View, in terms of stats, tend to get the better of us, but today (Sunday) we proved we are better than them,” said the young assistant coach.

It was not a straightforward victory. The second half brought several anxious moments as easy chances went a begging.

Gordon chuckled as he reflected on defender Barrington Pryce’s late headed winner.

“I’m very relieved because we got more than one chance to kill off the game, but Barrington Pryce can always come up with goals like that,” he said.

Harbour View’s Head Coach Ludlow Bernard was left downbeat since Humble Lion FC’s loss in another fixture meant his club could have leapfrogged them into fourth position with a win. Instead, they stay fifth with 33 points.

“It is a big blow in the sense that we weren’t able to capitalise on going into the fourth spot,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

After Jorginho James’ goal canceled the early strike from Tivoli’s Donavon Dawkins, the Harbour View coach said he felt his team would have grabbed the ascendancy. He said the strong wind at the venue and the rough playing surface were deterrents.

“I’m extremely disappointed about the result. I thought we didn’t apply ourselves properly. At the beginning of the second half, we thought we would have been able to move on to dominate. Tivoli dominated the midfield and we struggled as some players found it difficult to find their footing on the pitch.

The conditions as it were made it difficult for us.

“But in the bigger scheme of things we still retain our fifth spot and there are nine other games to go and we’ll be working hard on the training pitch to try get back at the teams in front of us,” Bernard said.

The four top teams at the end of 33 preliminary games will progress to the semi-finals. The two clubs with the fewest number of points will be demoted.