Nodley Wright, Staff ReporterWITH four sets of matches to play including this week's matchups, the battle for the four semi-final places will heat up even more. Topping the list of games on today is the clash between the most consistent team and leaders Hazard United and the defending champions and end of first round winners Arnett Gardens.
Also in action today are third-placed Harbour View who travel to Trelawny to take on semi-final hopefuls Village United who have been enjoying a good run boosted by the return to form of striker Teofore Bennett.
Waterhouse are the only team yet to lose a game in the third round of the competition and they too will be fancying their chances of a place in the semi-finals. A win against the already relegated Duhaney Park is almost guaranteed when both teams meet at Ferdie Neita Park today.
Tivoli Gardens are another team with eyes on a place in the last four. Their dreams were not helped last week when they went down 0-1 to Village United at the Elletson Wakleand field. A win then would have put them in a clear third position. Today they host the improving Wadadah at Railway Oval.
Prior to their loss of Hazard on Wednesday, Wadadah had recovered from an ordinary start to record an unbeaten run of four games including three wins.
Tivoli Gardens is not expected to be a happy hunting ground for them and new coach Carlton Alexander knows what to expect.
"I know it's going to be a tough game, it's a road game and road games always seem to be the difficult ones," Alexander said ahead of his fourth consecutive road game.
Tivoli on the other hand are bemoaning the position they have found themselves in after a brilliant run in the second round and playing themselves into the top four this round before letting the place slip.
"It's most unfortunate that we found ourselves in the position that we are. We thought having waited so long to be in the top four that on reaching we'd have stayed there until the end of the third round. We're still determined, we have four games to play and we're looking at a minimum of 10 points.
It means therefore that we've start at home by winning on Sunday," an optimistic Clarke said.
The midweek loss to Village United, Clarke said, was due to problems suffered by the teams offensive trio which have scored 39 out of 30 goals for their team. Christopher Nicholas who is the competition's leading goalscorer with 12 and Dwayne Richards who is two goals behind were injured. The other member of the trifecta, Roland Dean had an asthma attack.
Today though, at least two of that trio should start.
The Hazard United/Arnett Gardens game is important for a number of reasons. Not only will the winners move to the top of the table but whoever wins will break the deadlock between the two teams as all their encounters for the season have ended in draws.
"It is about time now we get a result from the Arnett clash. All of the games have drawn so far so we'd like to be the first team to break that deadlock," said coach Lenworth Hyde who had perhaps the deepest team in the competition. It is rich in national and age group representatives such as Chris Dawes who should return to anchor the midfield today, Omar Daley, Wolry Wolfe, Paul Young, Claude Davis, Sheldon Battiste, Sean Fraser, Kevin Deerr and goalkeeper Shawn Sawyers.
Arnett Gardens' Jerome Waite has expressed satisfaction with the performance of his players in their last two games.
"I strongly believe whoever wins this game will eventually win the overall round. I'm still confident in the Arnett Gardens team. I think they are playing true to form. The defensive unit is looking more organised and disciplined, you can see improvements in the concentration level. So it's a matter for the offensive team to keep creating the chances and putting them away," Waite said.
Kevin Wilson, Fabian Davis and Jonathan Williams are the men who will be saddled with the goalscoring responsibility for Arnett Gardens.
All games will be preceded by an Under-21 clash at the same venue. For the games beginning at 3:30 the Under-21clashes will take place at 1:00pm while the Reno Consatnt Spring Under-21 game will kickoff at 4:00pm.
