A battling performance from Boys Town saw them come back from a 1-0 half time deficit to get the better of arch rivals Arnett Gardens in another edition of the Trench Town derby at the Waterhouse Mini-Stadium in Drewsland.The latest clash was in the quarterfinals of the Jamaica Yellow Pages/KSAFA Jackie Bell Knock Out competition on Wednesday January 22nd.
A battling performance from Boys Town saw them come back from a 1-0 half time deficit to get the better of arch rivals Arnett Gardens in another edition of the Trench Town derby at the Waterhouse Mini-Stadium in Drewsland.The latest clash was in the quarterfinals of the Jamaica Yellow Pages/KSAFA Jackie Bell Knock Out competition on Wednesday January 22nd.
The game which had a typical derby feel, was an open and engaging contest and it took Arnett only seven minutes to ask questions of the Boys Town defence when Theo Brown got inside his marker to head just over the crossbar.
The veteran Cornel Chin-Sue, seemed to roll back the years as he marshaled the Arnett midfield with the ‘Junglists’ dominating the opening exchanges.
Despite playing second fiddle early on, it was Boys Town who came closest to opening the scoring when Daemion Benjamin saw his shot canon back off the cross bar and into play in the 19th minute.
A minute later it was Boys Town who were riding their luck as they scrambled the ball of their line following an dangerous inswinging corner kick which Kirk Porter failed to hold on to.
Arnett Gardens opened the scoring just two minutes later when they were able to unbalance the Boys Town defence with a switch of the play from left to right, that saw Jaron Richards totally unmarked when he received a pass on the edge of the area. The striker’s one time volleyed effort resulted in the ball lodging in the far corner of the net as Porter looked on helplessly.
Arnett held on to their slender lead until the break.
A reenergized Boys Town stepped up their efforts in the second half and it took two fine saves from Peter Harrison in the 50th minute to deny first Benjamin and then Peter Keyes, from grabbing the equalizer.
The hard running Boys Town team kept up the pressure on their opponents and it was no surprise when the grabbed the equalizer through Keyes who worked his way past a couple defenders before unleashing a powerful grounder to make it 1-1.
The cheers from the Boys Town fans had barely died down before they were celebrating again. This time it was the turn of Andre Dawson to find the back of the net when he met a right sided cross at the far post. Even though Dawson failed to make a proper connection with the ball, his effort bounced onto the ground and looped over the head of Harrison before nestling into the back of the net, as the Andrew Price led boys celebrated the go ahead goal.
It was no more than the ‘Red Brigade’ deserved based on the run of play and with both teams keeping up their efforts it appeared that there would be more goals in the game.
Arnett were left ruing their luck when Porter gleefully grabbed the ball and hung on for dear life in the second minute of stoppage time after the ball had bounced off the hip of his defender on the goal line.
The final whistle meant that Boys Town would face Tivoli Gardens in one semifinal and give them a quick opportunity at revenge after they had lost a heart breaker to Tivoli in the Red Stripe Premier League a few days earlier.
Boys Town coach, Andrew Price was pleased with both the outcome and performance of his team.
“We showed a lot of character today. We didn’t keep our shape and it cost us a goal in the first half. We spoke about it at half time and we did a lot better in that department. The team showed resilience and Peter Keyes who is back with us, scored today and then Benji got us the winner.”
Jerome Waite blamed his midfield for the Arnett loss. “The midfield didn’t give us what was expected and this forced the defenders to work harder than they should have and that pretty much cost us the game tonight.”
Boys Town will meet Tivoli Gardens in one of two semifinals on Sunday February 2nd.
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