By Nodley Wright, Staff Reporter
Tivoli Gardens forward Christopher Nicholas maintains possession of the ball under pressure from Reno's Garfield Brown during their National Premier League match at the Railway Oval yesterday. The game ended 2-2. - Rudolph Brown
LEADERS RENO just managed to maintain their lead in the Craven A National Premier League after scraping up a 2-2 draw against Tivoli Gardens at Railway Oval.
Dwayne Richards, with strikes in the 24th and 42nd minutes, twice gave the home team the lead before Shane Edwards in the 40th and Kirk Wright in the 87th hit back for Reno. With the draw Reno moved up to 14 points to maintain their lead in the competition.
Reno are followed by Hazard United who played to a 2-2 draw with Constant Spring at Constant Spring. Constant Spring come next with 12 points, two ahead of Arnett Gardens who fell 2-1 at home to Wadadah.
At Duhaney Park, former champions Harbour View managed to stop the rot at three losses in a row as a late strike from Dino Williams handed them a 1-0 win over the hapless home side. Duhaney Park are rooted at the bottom of the table with one point while Harbour View moved up to fifth.
The game between Waterhouse and Village was called off after five minutes in the second half by referee Lloyd Harrison after most of the supporters protested what they thought to be an error on his part. He awarded a free kick from a hand ball which the crowd believed to be handled by Fabian Dawkins of Village. He subsequently ejected Waterhouse captain Irvino English and the crowd invaded the field.
With the field cleared and both teams lining up for the restart, Harrison decided enough was enough and blew off the game.
At Railway Oval, Reno started out strongly against the home team before fading as the half progressed. With the exception of the lively Denzil Mitchell, Tivoli Gardens dominated the midfield. The speedy Richards caused a lot of problems for the Reno defence.
Richards gave Tivoli the lead when he slid home a low cross from Kasai Hinds which beat the diving Lawrence. Richards' conversion looked suspiciously offside but the officials thought otherwise.
Five minutes before the half ended, Edwards climbed high to head home a diagonal freekick from Jeffrey Foster. The score would not be level for long as two minutes later Garfield Brown brought down Roland Dean who had replaced the injured Christopher Nicholas.
Richards gave Lawrence no chance from the spot.
In the second half, Steve Green replaced Kasai Hinds as Tivoli continued to run rings around the visitors. Reno introduced Craig Gordon and he added a lot of energy to his team but the equaliser would come from the boot of the hard-working Wright.
Andre Jarrett fed him a ball out of midfield which gave him the upper hand on his marker Marco McDonald. Wright rounded the advancing Edsel Scott in goal and took his chance from an acute angle. Scott was so upset that he charged one of the officials at the end of the game and accused him of dishonesty.
"I can only hope that what is happening now is just for the first round," said Tivoli Gardens coach Dave Clarke, who again blamed his team's performance on indiscipline.
Reno's technical director, Wendell Downswell, was more pleased with the result. "We are happy for the result. It is a good one us and it shows that that we have a lot of tenacity, coming from behind twice.
"In the last two games we have scored four goals which shows that our offensive thrust is improving. Mentally and tactically we are ready for Arnett Gardens (on Sunday).
RESULTS
Tivoli Gardens 2 Reno 2
Arnett Gardens 1 Wadadah 2
Constant Spring 2 Hazard 2
Duhaney Park 0 Harbour View 1
