Arnett Gardens and Reno played their way to a lacklustre 0-0 draw at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex as the Cash Plus Premier League kicked off before a sizeable crowd yesterday.

The scoring opportunities were few and far between as the Junglists, who would have perhaps been hoping for a brighter start to the season and visitors Reno, who finished in the third place spot last season, for the most part cancelled out each other with skirmishes in midfield. The home team were perhaps further hampered by the absence of strikers Kwame Richardson, due to an injury and last year's early pacesetter, Leon Strickland, who is not yet match fit.

Walter Boyd, its former ace striker who is returning to the club and Kevin Wilson, alsow atched the game from the stands, while long-time midfield ace Cornel Chin Sue- watched the first half from the bench as an almost new-long bunch of mainly inexperienced players led the charge for the home team, which got by far their best crowd for some time with one stand almost full and another well populated amidst a sea of red.

Bad result

They never got the result they came to see as their team and visiting Westmoreland giants Reno appeared jittery and scrambled possession rather too easily in a rather unattractive affair and was assessed by Arnett's coach, Max Straw, as such.

Scoreless

"I didn't think we played as well as we could but under the circumstances I will take the draw, it was scoreless," said Straw. "We can only get better from here."

He added: "I think we needed a little bit more patience today. Maybe because it was the first game of the season, we needed to slow down the game a bit, but we ended up chasing the game with Reno."

The game was the first for Straw, the new man at the helm this season following the departure of Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey at the end of last season.

The man in charge for Reno, Aaron Lawrence, believes jitters could have been responsible for his team's opening day performance, but expects them to improve as the season progresses.

"It's the first game of the season. We were a bit tight, the game was a little below our expectations, but we will regroup and come back better," Lawrence explained.

"Today we saw a couple of things that we need to work on. You'll see a couple of changes by the next game, we will also be at home so that will be an advantage for us," he added.

- Kwesi Mugisa