By Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor THEIR POSITIONS have remained pretty much similar since they last met Harbour View at the top of the standings and Arnett Gardens struggling.
Don't watch that though. The perennial rivals are simmering for another mouth-watering Wray and Nephew National Premier League clash today at the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex starting at 5:30.
It numbers among three matches in the Corporate Area and Portmore. Tivoli will host Spanish Town's second-round form team Rivoli at Railway Oval and Geoffrey Maxwell's improved Constant Spring will make the short trip to Ferdie Neita Park for a shot at defending champions Portmore United. Both of those games are scheduled to kick off at 3:00.
The points discrepancy between the teams playing games at Portmore and Tony Spaulding Complex are almost the same. The champs have 30 points, one less than Harbour View, the joint points leader with Waterhouse on 31. Arnett and Constant Spring have 18 apiece at seventh and eighth respectively.
Arnett's second-round position is worse, third from bottom with four points from five matches.
That, too, is not much different from the form they displayed when they met in the first round and tied 1-1 at Harbour View, prompting Arnett's coach Jerome Waite to say: "It doesn't matter how bad this team is playing, they always rise to the occasion when they're playing against Harbour View."
MATCH WILL BE DIFFICULT
That tells why Donavan Hayles, Harbour View's coach, believes the match will be difficult.
"Regardless of their position, it's not going to be easy," he said. "They're a quality team and can rise to the occasion."
Clifton Waugh fired in a first-half penalty to give Harbour View the lead the first time they met but Kwame Richardson sneaked in to capitalise on a defensive mix-up and net the equaliser in a game dominated by Harbour View.
Open attacking play marked that encounter and it was very competitive too. Both scorers are among their team's charges for this evening's rivalry that Waite's lads have dominated by a huge percentage on the results chart. Nonetheless, he expects it to be "tough".
"It's another tough assignment. We're up against the leaders, they're going very well and we're still struggling to find form. We've shown a lot of signs of improvements ... while Harbour View have shown more signs of consistency. I'm only hoping for the best," he said.
Arnett have been most unsteady and lost another key player in their last game, Everton Bunsie, who broke a bone against Seba and will miss the rest of the season. Alberto Fray broke a hand in an earlier match.
Harbour View have also been without some key players in Daniel Shaw, Milton Griffiths and the unrelated Stewarts, Damion and Craig, but the team has played almost all season without them.
Their seven second-round points are five off the leaders and Hayles wants today's three points to restore their chances of making consecutive end of round finals.
"We definitely have to get all three points to strengthen our chances of making it to the second end of round final."
HARBOUR VIEW'S STARS
Jermaine Hue, Fabian Taylor, Luton Shelton and unheralded yet solid Lovell Palmer are Harbour View's leading lights, while Richardson, Cornel Chin-Sue, power-kicking Garth Bootha and Walter Boyd coming off a long injury lay-off carry the Arnett threat.
Portmore walloped Constant Spring 3-0 at 'Spring' last time. The latter put together the most consistent of an inconsistent patch this round with two wins and a draw in five to be sixth on seven points.
Portmore won one more game in an unbeaten sequence to this round's second highest points maker on 11 points and are fancied to claim the maximum again.
However, recent results and Markino Gillings' Player of the Month status suggest the work of Maxwell - who took over the team near six matches ago - is taking form which should make the task more difficult, even though their opponents are home.
Prospects of an end of round final place will add as much interest as the Tivoli-Rivoli affair.
Rivoli, with Coach of the Month Bradley Stewart back at the helm, lead that race with 12 points off four wins, four more than Tivoli's tally. Of added significance are the teams' positions in the overall standings - Tivoli fifth on 26, Rivoli sixth on 25.
Tivoli went to Spanish Town and took all three points with a 2-1 first-round win and with a more mature team, should be bubbling for this rematch.
However, the key strikers in both teams, Tivoli's Christopher Nicholas and Patrick Beech, captain of the Spanish Town team, have good form and could tilt a very balanced affair.
TODAY'S GAMES
Arnett Gardens vs Harbour View
Reno vs Star Cosmos
Tivoli Gardens vs Rivoli
Invaders vs Village
Seba United vs Waterhouse
Portmore United vs Constant Spring
All games start at 3:00 p.m. except the Arnett/H. View clash at 5:30 p.m.
