Portmore, H/View eye 'final'
published: Sunday | November 2, 2003

Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Portmore United and Harbour View will be seeking wins this afternoon in the first round of the Wray and Nephew National Premier League (NPL) competition to advance to the first end-of-round final.

Portmore are on 19 points and in third place and will host Village United at Ferdie Neita Park and must win after Waterhouse beat Tivoli Gardens 2-1 yesterday to advance to 22 points while Harbour View have some leeway with a rescheduled game in hand.

The east Kingston club is on 20 points and has a game in hand and will play Reno in the rescheduled game at Frome on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the other clubs that have no hope of advancing to the end-of-round final will be seeking to accumulate points and to get a jump start on the second round which starts on November 19.

PORTMORE TRAIL WATERHOUSE

Portmore are coming off a bruising and hard-fought 2-1 win over Seba United at Jarrett Park on Wednesday and could find themselves the odd team out as they will need to win by a healthy margin of eight goals to get by Waterhouse.

Portmore are on 19 points and trail Waterhouse by three points but are seven goals adrift of the Harold Thomas-coached team and will need to win big today.

That could be a tall task however as, despite their inconsistent form, Village have one of the best defensive records, conceding just six goals all season, same as Portmore and just one shy of Harbour View, the leaders in that category.

Additionally, all of Village's four wins have come away from their home field, Elliston Wakeland Centre.

Despite the presence of the record NPL single season goalscorer Roen Nelson, Portmore have not set the league on fire with their scoring feats. They have not scored more than three goals in any game and have been goalless on three occasions.

Today Kevin Deerr, the Brazilian Felipe Michel, Andrew Morrison and Damion Williams must go for goal from the start.

A draw today would not hurt Harbour View's chances but after being held goalless by last-placed Star Cosmos on Wednesday, they could try to take out their frustrations on Rivoli today.

FREE-SCORING WATERHOUSE

While the free-scoring Waterhouse team has been hogging the headlines lately, Harbour View have 'quietly' been putting together one of the most impressive records in the league and must be given the nod today to get all three points and render Tuesday's game a mere formality as far as qualifying for the end-of-round final is concerned.

The Donovan Hayles-coached team has been steady, going eight games without defeat since losing on the opening day to Constant Spring. In that span it has made the most of its chances, dropping just four points while winning six times.

Meanwhile, at Constant Spring, new coach Geoffrey Maxwell will be careful not to lose his third in a row since taking over at the uptown outfit when it host struggling Montego Bay club Seba United.

Spring have conceded eight goals in the two games they have played under Maxwell and are yet to score one of their own.

Technical director Danny Lyn says he is not worried as they have seen some positive signs since Maxwell made wholesale changes to the line-up and the team is still trying to adapt to the new system.

The cold, hard fact however is that Spring have slipped to ninth place in the 12-team league after winning two of their first four matches.

Seba will also be desperate for a win as they trail Spring by one point and are a place lower in the standings.

TODAY'S GAMES