Arnett Gardens striker, Leon Strickland (foreground), is hustled to the ground by Sporting Central's Jevaughn Watson (centre) and Mark Allen during their Digicel Premier League clash at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday. Arnett won 1-0. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

An eight-minute strike from the dread-locked midfielder, Oneil Robinson, guided Arnett Gardens to 1-0 win over bottom-placed Sporting Central Academy in Digicel Premier League action at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex yesterday.

A tall and towering figure, Robinson was the beneficiary of a curving square from player-coach Fabian Davis and with the goalkeeper beaten, he neatly tucked home the ball, much to the joy of their ardent fans.

The win, Arnett's first of the second round and fourth of the season after 15 games, kept the men from South St Andrew in the middle of the standings with 15 points, seven adrift of sixth place Waterhouse and one ahead of eight-placed, Rivoli.

Meanwhile, Sporting Central, who fell to their eighth defeat in 15 games, remained at the bottom of the 12-team standings with 11 points, one behind fellow strugglers, Village and Meadhaven.

"It was an ugly win, but a needy three points," said Davis, who after starting, and making a difference in midfield, resigned himself to the bench for much of the second half.

Good first half

"We played in patches, whereby we played a very good first half, but in the second we allowed them too much freedom and space and they came at us. But as I said we wanted three points and in the end we got it."

After a scrappy opening five minutes, both teams began to settle and string passes with Arnett taking the lead through Robinson.

Riding on the momentum, they then went in search of goal number two and led by Davis, who roamed behind strikers Kevin "Pele" Wilson and Leon Strickland, they were a constant thorn in the side of Sporting Central's defence. They, however, failed in their bid as led by the busy Terry Alves and Linval Lewis and some fine goalkeeping from Demetrio Brown, Sporting Central held their own.

Action then switched to the second half where Sporting Central, led by influential midfielder and captain, Jevaughn Watson, took the game to Arnett.

Stout defending

However, on each of their attempts, they were denied by stout defending from Desmond Breakenridge and Anthowe Dawkins, deft goalkeeping from Julian McLeish and inept shooting from their strikers.

"We lost a game that we should have won," said an uneasy-looking Christopher Dawes, coach of Sporting Central.

"We controlled the game for most of the second half and created legitimate scoring chances. We have no one else to blame but ourselves," he added.

When asked whether or not the loss has put him and the team under pressure, given the fact they are at the bottom of the standings, Dawes said absolutely not, as the season is still relatively young.

"We are not under pressure, we are just in a rut," he said. "Once we start scoring goals and getting wins, we will find back our rhythm so we just have to take one step at a time."