H View hunt Village's scalp
published: Sunday | December 28, 2003

Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

IT'S NOT actually bird season, but Harbour View are aiming to sling-shot two with one stone by bringing down Village United in their Wray and Nephew National Premier League hunt for points at Compound starting at 3:00 p.m. today.

"It's of double importance," was how Harbour View's coach, Donavan Hayles, defined the clash among teams at the top of the ladder. "We have to win this game to maintain a good position to be in the second end of round final and also to maintain our position at the top of the table overall."

The east Kingston team holds down No. 1 spot in the overall standings with the joint highest 34 points, four more than Village. In the second-round table, Village (11) are ahead of Harbour View by one point.

As it is with Harbour View, a win would also be a double triumph for the Trelawny team too, which adds significance to the clash. However, Village's coach, Lloyd Williams, has set his sights on the bigger picture.

"If we can pick up these three points it will be good to close up the gap," he said of the overall table in which they are tied on points with defending champions Portmore United.

Waterhouse, the first-round champions, also have 34 points. They will host struggling Arnett Gardens at Drewsland in the other Corporate Area match.

Rivoli will host Constant Spring at Prison Oval in Spanish Town and Montego Bay's Seba journey to play Star Cosmos at the St. Mary's newcomers' out-of-parish home venue at Drax Hall in St. Ann.

With only two points and another four fixtures after this year's last set of matches today, Seba (two points) and Arnett Gardens (four) are the only clubs without a chance of making the second end of round final. Rivoli are on top at 13.

To strengthen their chances, Hayles believe a key factor will be Harbour View's ability to "... maintain the high level of intensity as we did against Arnett Gardens".

They won 3-2 last Sunday on a Fabian Taylor hat-trick in that see-saw game they led 1-0, fell behind 2-1 before a second-half recovery gave them full points.

Taylor picked up a red card and will miss today's home clash for which Hayles says "the responsibility will fall at the feet of both Jomo Gordon and Luton Shelton" - his front pair.

Sunday's red card denies Taylor an opportunity to score against Village again. He struck once in their first round 2-0 win, achieved with second half goals with only 10 men as goalie Leeroy Gray was sent off at the 37th minute.

Williams said his team reacted to Gray's sending off poorly and paid the price.

"In that game Harbour View went down to 10 men and everybody got carried away and were pushing forward, we played very irresponsibly. Since then we've only lost once."

Kevin Williams and Preston Bernard are unavailable for Village through yellow card suspensions, but Williams hopes replacements Christopher Dawes and Conroy Graham will spur them to a better result than last Sunday's 1-1 derby finish against fellow Trelawny team Invaders.

Arnett's coach, Jerome Waite, is also hoping for a better result. They have been inconsistent all season and are now burdened with the task of producing against a team which won all its games at Drewsland and walloped them 3-0 at home in the first round.

Will they be easy pickings for Waterhouse?

"Actually no, we don't think so," says Barry Brown, Waterhouse's assistant coach. "We think Arnett will be coming like a wounded animal to kick start their season so we won't be taking them lightly.

"We see each game as very important because we want to continue to lead the Premier League standings. We'll go into it with the same intensity and approach as we've done all season ... we're going for the three points and we have ambitions for the second end of round final."

They have nine points this round and Nigerian Uchechukwu Chinyere set to return from a red card suspension to partner the league's high scorer Kevin Lamey up front.

Arnett were runners-up last season. They won back-to-back championships prior to that.

This campaign, everything that could have gone bad, it seems, went bad, contributing to their off-season. They are fourth from bottom in the overall standings on 18 points.

"Presently we're more than struggling," is coach Waite's assessment. "All I can say is we're just hoping for the best. We've played a lot of games that we should've won and if you don't score the goals it won't make a difference."

He added: "The main thought at this time is just to get a win; not only to ease the pressure but to finish the year on a high. It (Waterhouse) is a team that has not lost a game at home. We know that it will be extremely difficult ... but with all of that we're going there hoping that we can play our best game."

They will be without defender Alex Thomas through an accumulation of yellow cards.

Rivoli's full staff will be on call and head of the coaching staff, Bradley Stewart, said: "We expect to do well against Constant Spring. We've a lot of respect for every team out there. They have not been all that consistent but they've won their past two games and the last one (1-0) against Portmore at that. Any result against Portmore must be seen as informative. Their goalkeeper made a number of good saves, it means that we have to be more clinical in our finishing.

"It's important that we get maximum points in this game. Our target in the short term is to stabilise our team and get to that mid-season final," noted Stewart.

Constant Spring's coach, Geoffrey Maxwell, has that goal in mind too.

He said: "Our main objective is to get to the end of second round final and we think we have as good a chance as any other team.

"It's going to be a very difficult game because Rivoli are currently on top of their game and they're the second round leaders. But it is not beyond us to win. Of course, Rivoli are a different type of team than Portmore so there'll be a few adjustments and hopefully those adjustments can win us the game."

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