By Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport EditorPREMIER LEAGUE teams have placed a major emphasis on confidence for this afternoon's JNBS Federation Cup knockout clashes against lower leaguers.
Their very presence at this level states the essence on building self-belief. Four number among the 16 participants in what is essentially the first round seeing that a couple of earlier matches served only as deciders for this main draw.
The NPL representatives are Star Cosmos, Seba United, Invaders and Arnett Gardens and their participation at this near embryonic stage is because they occupied the bottom four positions in the big league at December 31 last year.
Seba will host St. Mary's Axum in the only game slated to kick off at 4:00 p.m., at Jarrett Park. Arnett travel to face Clarendon's Sporting Central at Brancourt, Invaders are at home to Orange Hill and, since qualifying for the NPL, Star Cosmos will play a real home match at St. Mary Sports Complex, against arch-rivals St. George's United from Portland.
In four other match-ups also set to begin at 3:00 p.m., the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) play host to Santos at Up Park Camp in an all-Corporate Area clash among Super League contenders, Ochi tackle Montpellier at Drax Hall, Windsor Lions travel to Elliston Wakeland to face Flames Youth Club and Middlesex will host Berlin at Newtown.
The main focus though will be on big guns Arnett, who are at full throttle right now and are looking to further enhance their form and state of mind after going seven matches without conceding a goal while winning five times.
CONSISTENCY
"The main objective is to see consistency in the team's system of play, to ensure that they can maintain the high level concentration and continue scoring goals," said their coach, Jerome Waite.
Their latest win was big 3-0 romp over NPL top four team Harbour View on Sunday with a Walter Boyd double and Kwame Richardson strike and Waite added: "I don't want them to approach this game overconfident but I think their confidence has risen seeing that in the past few games they stood out in all departments. But there is still a lot of room for improvement."
Transformation to success has lifted them from the relegation zone to a safe position.
It is not the same for Invaders, Star Cosmos and Seba United and having been unable to get it at the higher level, they are seeking a lift against these lower leaguers.
"The game will be a crucial one seeing that we're unable to win games in the Premier League," pointed out Lewin Purser, coach of bottom NPL team Star Cosmos. "So we want to use this as a motivating factor for the team, so that we can start winning some games and transfer that into the Premier League."
It's no different for Seba United's Tommy Taylor.
"We want to win," Taylor said. "The players are playing like a team now, they're really trying hard. That's the biggest thing in football, to play well and let everybody get lots and lots of confidence.
"It's all about confidence, if you win you're confident all the time but if you lose games you're wondering if you can do it."
