Byjeon Thomas, head coach of Dunbeholden FC, commended his team for a 2-1 victory over Tivoli Gardens FC in their Jamaica Premier League Football match at Dunbeholden Sports Complex yesterday.

Dwight Merrick scored the winning goal in time added for stoppages in the second half.

"I'm very happy with the display," Thomas said. "While Tivoli might have had the better of us in the first half, we regrouped and you could see in the second half that we wanted to at least get something out of this game."

"It's way too early to talk about placing but we were focused on getting points on the board and then see how high we can finish," he explained.

After registering only a point in their last two games, Dunbeholden went in search of crucial points and got their opener in the ninth minute as Shakeen Powell latched on to Tivoli's custodian Nicholas Clarke's mishandling of the ball and buried the spill.

Tivoli's Justin Dunn came close to getting the equaliser in the 20th minute, but could only watch as his close-range effort went above the bar.

Five minutes before the halftime interval, however, Tivoli Gardens would level the scoreline through Lennox Russell, who found space at the far post to easily convert on the back of a counter-attack.

In the second half, chances were few and far between. Dunbeholden's Chevoy Watkin got a decent chance after finding himself unmarked at the far post, but he sent his effort wide of the target.

In added time, Merrick was gifted a chance as Clarke, yet again, failed to handle the ball inside his box, spilling it on the boots of the attacker who obliged by comfortably netting.

With the defeat Tivoli Gardens suffered their fifth loss in 10 games. According to Jerome Waite, head coach of the team, the manner in which they lost was 'heartbreaking'.

"This is more than disappointing, it's heartbreak. At this level you can't have goalkeepers making that error and this really puts a damp on the team going forward," said Tivoli's coach Jerome Waite. "The sad part is how we're conceding goals and this is something I'll look at and see how best I can make changes.

Compounding Tivoli's problems is they have scored only six goals in their 10 games.

"It is a problem. We got our fair chances and we didn't convert. What happened is just not acceptable," Waite said.

orane.buchanan@gleanerjm.com