Price praises Tivoli Gardens FC’s resilience After hard-fought win with tricky scoreline in Legend Jamaica Premier League

Rarely will you find a 3-0 scoreline that does not truly reflect the run of play.

Tivoli Gardens Football Club’s triumph over Dunbeholden FC in the Legend Jamaica Premier League football competition on Sunday falls squarely in that category, as Tivoli Gardens held a lead by the slimmest of margins from first-half stoppage time at the Edward Seaga Sports Complex.

Additionally, Dunbeholden FC unusually conceded that goal, and by the cruellest of means, an own goal, by Odean Pennycooke, himself a former Tivoli Gardens player.

Quick double

The teams then battled tooth and nail through the second half, with Tivoli holding their lead until stoppage time, when a quick double sealed the deal.

Ajuma Johnson (90+4) and Barrington Pryce (90+6, penalty) struck the goals in added time.

“Dunbeholden, coming off their first win, really wanted to come and get something out of the game, but we showed our resilience, showed our character,” said Tivoli Gardens coach Andrew Price.

Tivoli are now fourth in the JPL standings with 11 points, the same as third-place Waterhouse and fifth-place Tru-Juice.

Dunbeholden, meanwhile, sit in 12th place on three points, and coach Alex Thomas observed that they did not play as bad as the scoreline suggests.

“The scoreline doesn’t reflect the game,” Thomas said. “But kudos to Tivoli; they did what they had to do to win the game.

“However, at this level you have to score your chances because goals win matches,” he said, reflecting on his team’s downfall.

Late goals

At Jarrett Park, in Montego Bay, St James, late goals from Giovanni Taylor (78th) and Roderick Granville (90th) pulled Arnett Gardens from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Jamaica Premier League (JPL) leaders Montego Bay United, on Sunday.

Jourdain Fletcher (14th) and Devonte Campbell (50th, penalty), put the hosts in the driver’s seat.

But the late heroics from Taylor and Granville spoiled the outcome for the home team, which moved up to 14 points.

MoBay United’s coach Javier Ainstein said that after a dominant display for the majority of the game, they failed to put the game to bed and paid the price.

“The team played good in the first half and most of the second half. Maybe some changes that I did weren’t as expected. I believe we needed to kill the match early, but we didn’t,” he said.

Arnett Gardens’ assistant coach, Fabian Taylor, said his team grew slowly into the match, but had to dig deep to get the point.

“We started a little bit slow but we picked it up in the second half. We conceded very early, but the boys believe in themselves and worked very hard in the second half and got two goals back.

“We could have even got the win. But kudos to the boys,” Taylor commented.

At Bramwell Clarke Sports Complex, Tyrone Mullings (34th, 56th, 69th) bagged a hat-trick as Tru-Juice rolled over Humble Lion 4-0, in another game on Sunday. Gadail Irving scored the other goal in the 79th minute.

Tru-Juice moved up to 11 points, while Humble Lion are bottom of the 14-team standings on two points.

At Drax Hall, Chapelton Maroons turned back Treasure Beach 1-0 on Robinho Gordon’s 75th-minute goal.

Chapelton Maroons moved up to eight points, while Treasure Beach remain second-to-last on two points.