Arnett Gardens secured a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Humble Lion in the Jamaica Premier League football competition at Stadium East Monday afternoon (July 12).

Jonoy Cunningham pulled Arnett Gardens level in the 14th minute after Vishinul Harris handed Humble Lion the lead in the eighth minute, with Renaldo Cephas securing the victory for Arnett Gardens with a goal in the 75th.

The win propelled Arnett Gardens from 10th in the 11-team points standings to eighth, as they leapt Dunbeholden and Molynes United. Arnett Gardens, after two matches, are on three points the same as Dunbeholden, but having a better goal difference, with Molynes on one point.

The match completed the fixtures’ third round. The competition is being led by defending champions Portmore United on five points. They are followed by Harbour View, who lead Waterhouse by goals scored, and Vere United on goal difference as all three are on five points.

Humble Lion are rooted to the foot of the table without a point from their three outings.

Arnett Gardens had several opportunities to take the lead in the early stages but wasted the chances they created with poor finishes, which they eventually rued when Humble Lion scored.

With the match still early, Harris, who once donned the colours of Arnett Gardens, latched on to a lovely through ball by Levaughn Williams to beat goalkeeper Chadeem Rodriques.

Arnett Gardens continued to press their opponents and created several opportunities for an equaliser until Cunningham headed home from a short corner that Oshane Roberts crossed into the six-yard box.

Arnett Gardens missed several opportunities before and after the half-time break, before Cephas ran through the Humble Lion defence to tap an Ezran Simpson Jr left-sided cross, past Humble Lion’s goalkeeper Mikhail Harrison.

According to goalkeeping coach Lamar Brown, the formula for Arnett Gardens’ success will be pressing their opponents, which they will continue to work on during training to keep improving as the season goes along.

“Today was pleasing as we got our first win of the season and lots of shots on goal. Pressing was always a blueprint for Arnett Gardens as we practised it on the training pitch and we tried to move the ball from defence to offence as quickly as possible, knowing that we have a youthful bunch of players, so we try to make them run as long as possible,” Brown said.

Humble Lion’s coach Andrew Price believes his players did not maintain a high standard throughout the match but hopes that they will be able to turn around their poor start to the season by working hard in training.

“I believe that we didn’t press the Arnett Gardens team enough. They are a young team, full of energy and we didn’t pressure them and weren’t able to get the ascendency. I think we played in patches, weren’t consistent throughout the game and we going to have to just continue to work.

“We can turn it around. It is going to take time. We have been out for 15 months. The players haven’t been playing, haven’t been training. We just started training on June 2 so it’s going to take time, but we are going to stick to the process and keep working hard until it gets better,” Price said.