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Arnett Gardens coach Xavier Gilbert said poor defending and failure to take advantage of chances cost his side a 2-1 loss to Mount Pleasant in yesterday’s Group A CONCACAF League match at Sabina Park.
Jahshaun Anglin headed in a goal in the 33rd minute to give Mount Pleasant the lead, but Arnett dominated early in the second half and Shai Smith equalized in the 54th minute.
Mount Pleasant’s Kimonie Bailey then scored the winning goal to give Theodore Whitmore a perfect start in his second spell as manager of the club.
“It was a good game, but we made some mistakes and it cost us,” Gilbert said.
Whitmore said his team gave everything they had to get the win.
“We don’t want to make any excuses. We asked our guys to do one thing and that was to give it their all, give 110 percent, and they went out and left it all on the field.”
“After losing the game, these three points mean a lot to us and the players. We must continue to work hard and keep improving,” Whitmore said. “Even though we only got three points, you still want to prove yourself, and we did it tonight.”
Mount Pleasant is tied with the Knights at the top of the group with three points, despite having played one more game. Police and Royal Hope each have one point, while Arnett is at the bottom of the group with zero points.
Despite this, Gilbert believes they still have enough games to get their campaign back on track.
“It’s unfortunate that we lost. It’s the first game and we are still going. It might put us behind in the table and we might be at the bottom of the table. But we will give it a try. We have several games to play,” he added.
After creating most of the chances in the first half, Anglin took advantage of a Daniel Reid cross to open the scoring. However, Arnett came on after the break and continued to use quick, short passes to open up the Mount Pleasant defense, and in the 19th minute of the second half, Smith headed in a goal past Shaquan Davis to equalize the score.
The ‘Coyotes continued to make good starts in the closing stages of the game but were vulnerable on the counter-attack and they paid the price in the 81st minute when Bailey broke through the Anet defence before scoring with a powerful low shot.
“When you have momentum, it’s always easy for opponents to lose on counterattacks and fast breaks, and that cost us,” Gilbert said.
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