Top sides square off
published: Sunday | November 30, 2003

At left, Lamey was fined $10,000 by Water-house and suspended for two games, while, at right, is Harbour View's Robert Scarlett.

Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

HARBOUR VIEW and Waterhouse reckon they have been playing below par since the start of the second round.

The front-running duo meet at Harbour View Mini Stadium at 3:00 p.m. today, hoping their top-of-the-table Wray and Nephew National Premier League clash will zap them back into the form which made them so dominant in the opening round.

"We've not been doing so well in this round," admitted Donovan Hayles, coach of Harbour View, who drew both early second-round matches they were expected to put away with ease against struggling Constant Spring and newcomers Invaders.

"We're long overdue to come up with a big performance and I think Waterhouse is just the team to provide that motivation because they've been doing extremely well so far," Hayles said.

They have 26 points, two less than Waterhouse who got a 3-0 shocker in their first second-round game before working overtime to put away stubborn Reno 2-0 at Drewsland midweek.

"We need to get back to our basic passing game," Waterhouse's coach, Barry Brown, said. "We were passing the ball beautifully right up to the mid-season (end of round) final and moving well off the ball. We've stopped doing that."

Regardless, they lead the standings with 28 points and are keen to stay ahead.

"That is the priority - for us to maintain our leadership position in the league," he said.

Doing that, however, is contingent on certain factors.

"If we turn up and play our fluent passing game then we can win. But if we play like we did against Reno, we're going to be in trouble against Harbour View."

He should know. Before joining the coaching staff at Drewsland this season, today's venue was unquestionably home for Brown - both as a player and coach.

SUSPENDED

Their task could be more difficult because they will be without three regulars, Demar Phillips and Roger Rodney through tallied yellow cards, and league leading marksman Kevin Lamey (11 goals) who was fined $10,000 by the club and suspended for two games for refusing to be substituted in Wednesday's win.

Tireless Roberto Fletcher, who was being forwarded as Lamey's replacement Wednesday, should get the starting role alongside Nigerian Uchechukwu Chinyere up front.

Chinyere scored against Harbour View the last time the teams met in the end-of-round final which Waterhouse claimed 2-1 and he is among their leading hopes to increase the team's goal tally today.

One-all second round ties have pushed Harbour View's goal count to 21 and Hayles has thrown down the gauntlet to Fabian Taylor, who accounted for their last goal, and several other team stars, to step up for the big clash.

"Our key players, Robert Scarlett, Jermaine Hue and Fabian Taylor will have to deliver the goods on the day, that will make the big difference," said Hayles.

STARTING OFF SLOW

"We've been starting off slow. We've to get back to that early dominance in a game and not play catch up," he said. "We've lost valuable ground by dropping too many points in games where we should have taken all three. To gain valuable ground we have to beat the top club. That's what it comes down to."

There will be two other matches in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine with one of the teams carrying a first leg advantage.

That is Constant Spring (11), who beat Tivoli Gardens 1-0 at their field uptown. Given the way they have plummeted and Tivoli have skyrocketed, it will be extremely hard for third-from-bottom Constant Spring to stop Tivoli Gardens from adding three points to their tally of 21. The game is at Railway Oval at 3:00 p.m.

Kick off is set for the same time at Prison Oval where Spanish Town's Rivoli (19 points), who hammered Waterhouse 3-0 and Star Cosmos 2-0 away at midweek, seek to extend their winning ways against an Arnett team looking to shed its poor form. Still, Arnett (14) possess quality and can rise at anytime.

Their only meeting this season ended with Rivoli clamouring back with a late double to tie the game 2-2.

TODAYS GAMES