By Nodley Wright, Freelance WriterAS THE battle to secure semi-finals places and to avoid relegation continues in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League, a full set of six matches are on today. Four of those matches will be taking place in Kingston and St. Andrew and St. Catherine.
While all the matches are important, the one, which really catches the eye is the top-of-the-table clash between the runaway leaders on 61 points, Tivoli Gardens, and defending champions Portmore United, who are eight points back on 53. This match takes place at the Railway Oval at 3:30 p.m.
There are a number of points of interest in this game, the first being the fact that the defending champions who only find themselves above Harbour View on goal difference, cannot afford to slip as the teams in second to sixth positions are so tightly bunched with just four sets of matches to go in the regular season after today's game.
TIE-BREAKER
This match will also serve as a tie-breaker as in the three matches between the two teams so far one has been drawn while they share a win each.
Additionally, there is the little matter of the father and the son with the same name going up against each other.
"This is a very important game for us. It is one we have to win if we intend to be in the semi-finals," said Lenworth Hyde, coach of defending champions Portmore, about the clash.
"It is also important that we win if we are to go all the way and this is the only competition that we have a chance in so we are going all out as we do not intend to end the season empty-handed. We have to start winning and start getting some consistency," he said.
Consistency is something that has been missing from the Portmore team which seems to have been affected by the departure of defender Claude Davis and midfielder Omar Daley. Additionally, whenever captain and utility player Anthony Modeste is not around, it suffers from a lack of leadership.
That should not be the case today as Modeste will be present.
"In terms of our players only one, Kevin Deerr, will be out due to injury," Hyde said. "All the others such as Modeste and Adrien Mitchell are available."
For Tivoli's Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey the focus will be a little different.
Having already secured a semi-final place he is now trying to earn the most points in the league to collect a $1 million jackpot.
"We want to stay on course to secure the objective of winning the $1 million," Bailey said.
"As you know we qualified for the semi-finals some time ago so it is not detrimental to us if we lose. We have to consider the game important in that it will strengthen our chances of achieving one of our objectives," he said.
Bailey is not worried that his team will not be at full strength as a number of players are injured. Steve Green will definitely be out but Christopher Nicholas, who has not played for over a month, will be given a run to test his match fitness.
Like Nicholas, Darren Virtue has not featured for a while and like Green he too could sit out.
"We are still not at full strength and that is one of the reasons why I am glad for the position that we had put ourselves in from early. Interestingly, I would say that at no time this season have we been able to field out strongest team which says something about the way we have played," Bailey said.
At Constant Spring, Seba United, the former standard-bearers of western Jamaica, have faded significantly and desperately need a win over Constant Spring in their fight with Trelawny's Invaders to avoid the drop. On 23 points, Seba are one behind Invaders with only Star Cosmos with 12 below them.
Star Cosmos, who play away to sixth-placed Rivoli, are certain to go down. They have done themselves no favours giving up points in successive matches for fielding ineligible players after fighting their way to draws against Arnett Gardens and Waterhouse respectively. Rivoli, led by the competitions third leading scorer Patrick Beech and who are also within striking distance of the semi-finals, will give them no chance.
TODAY'S GAMES
| Harbour View | vs | Arnett Gardens |
| Reno | vs | Waterhouse |
| Constant Spring | vs | Seba |
| Rivoli | vs | Star Cosmos |
| Invaders | vs | Village |
| Tivoli | vs | Portmore |
Home teams named first.
