Sport

Arnett aiming to cool hot Portmore

By AINSLEY WALTERS Staff Reporter

Kevin Wilson, Arnett (left) and Kevin Deerr, Portmore(right) - FILE

ARNETT GARDENS MUST be burning to get back at Portmore United after an embarrassing 3-0 home loss in the Premiership. The Junglists will have their chance tomorrow at Ferdie Neita Park with interim head coach Michael Tulloch hunting his third win from as many games in charge.

Tulloch yesterday admitted Arnett played badly against Portmore in their Premiership match-up but are banking on a more disciplined approach in tomorrow's 3:30 Red Stripe Champions Cup knockout encounter against the Premier League second round winners.

"I have no doubt about my team beating Portmore but it will all boil down to the discipline," said the former Jamaica Defence Force and national striker, who has been elevated to head coach at Arnett in the absence of Jerome Waite, who's off on a "refresher course", according to club president Patrick Roberts.

"We didn't play with any discipline against Portmore," Tulloch pointed out. "Discipline was lacking in the tracking and marking. We allowed them to play in that 3-0 defeat. We'll be trying not to make the same mistake come Wednesday because Portmore are the most disciplined team in the Premiership.

"If you play indisciplined, you'll always lose to Portmore because football is all about discipline. Indiscipline creates problems such as the coach having to be shouting from the bench all the time," he added.

New head coach

Arnett got the better of Portmore in the first round of the Premier League, winning 2-0 at Ferdie Neita Park, but a rejuvenated second round under new head coach Paul Young took the out-of-town team straight to the second round final and atop the standings. Both teams are reporting off lukewarm performances against weaker rivals in the Premiership and Red Stripe knockout.

Portmore drew 1-1 in the league on Sunday against Reno at Frome and Portmore had to wait until stoppage time for Onandi Lowe to score on his return to the Premiership in a 1-0 win over Village at the Elliston-Wakeland Centre.

The Junglists also had to struggle in the Red Stripe knockout last week, taken the distance by Los Perfectos of Manchester before winning 3-2 on penalties to advance to the third round. Arnett will be without defenders Kowri Pickersgill and Wayne Ellis. However, Marlon Benbow and Patrick Graham are expected to fill their roles. Lowe was not registered in time to be available for the Red Stripe KO.

Last Thursday, Portmore, fielding a weakened side, went down 2-0 against Arlington in their return match but advanced 5-2 on aggregate.

Anthony Modeste, Christopher Dawes, Kevin Deerr, Roen Nelson, Demar Stewart, Ryan Powell and Fabian Malcolm sat out that game in addition to goalie Shawn Sawyers coming off the bench. However, apart from Nelson being doubtful due to injury, Young said his squad is raring to go against Arnett.

"If we played as we did last time, the results shouldn't differ," he said last night. "We didn't give them a chance to play. If they don't have room they can't play," he added.

There'll be one other match on tomorrow, Reno hosting Sandy Bay at Frome. Sandy Bay of Hanover can't be taken lightly after blanking Village 2-0 in their first match-up. When they met in their return match at Village's Elliston-Wakeland Centre, the men from Hanover were far from disgraced in a 0-1 loss, which saw them through 2-1 on aggregate.