Confident Village host Arnett
published: Sunday | December 14, 2003

Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

A CONFIDENT Village United team will be awaiting former champions Arnett Gardens at the Elliston Wakeland Community Centre this afternoon when the Wray & Nephew National Premier League (NPL) second round continues.

Village's coach Lloyd Williams told The Gleaner yesterday that they have promised the Falmouth community that they will win all their remaining home games for the rest of the year and Arnett will come up against a very attacking team today in the game starting at 3:00 p.m.

Fourth placed Village will be seeking their third win in their last four meetings with Arnett Gardens and second this season but the Arnett coach Jerome Waite says that while they will not be at full strength, they have a plan for Village.

"We know the Village team is a very physical one but we plan to give them less space to play the football," Waite said.

While hesitant to disclose the make up of the team for today, Waite said that he expects his team to "step up as they are playing well below their level right now."

Both teams have reasons to be confident going into the game as they are both coming off good wins in their last outings plus Village has managed to turn around their abysmal early season home form and has won their last two games at Ellison Wakeland.

In their last two home games Village has outscoring their opponents 5-0 and has lost just one of their four games played so far in the second round.

BUILDING UP MOMENTUM

Arnett on the other hand has won just once since the start of the second round, Wednesday's 2-1 win over Seba in a rescheduled game after drawing 1-1 against Tivoli on Sunday and could be heading to Trelawny building up momentum after moving up into seventh place in the points standings.

Coach Williams says he will be putting a very attacking team on the field to start the game but will have Teofore Bennett coming in off the bench if needed. Williams told The Gleaner that Bennett needs "a mental break as he has been trying too hard to carry the team on his shoulders" and has been frustrated in the past few games.

Village will start a very experienced midfield of national representative Fabian Dawkins, Ian McAnuff, Kevin Williams and Christopher Dawes while Daniel Ricketts and Warren Ukah will spearhead the attack.

If there is any sector of the Village team that Arnett should fear it is the defence that has allowed just four goals in their last eight games.

Williams puts this down to the skills of the defensive leader Kirk Hendricks who he says reads the game very well and is able to lead the unit with skill and experience.

Former national striker Walter Boyd was a 65th minute substitute for Arnett on Wednesday but has not played in western Jamaica in more than two seasons but could feature in the injury hit team today.

The latest casualty on the Arnett team is Everton Bunsie who suffered a fracture on Wednesday and will be out for a while.

Garth Boota who also came on in the 65th minute against Seba, Leon Strickland, Cornell Chin-Sue and Ray Graham will be hoping to help win Arnett's first game at Elliston Wakeland in two seasons.

TODAY'S GAMES