Crawford
Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Portmore United and Village United, the team they beat in the semi-finals last season, will be seeking to maintain their drives for a place in the semi-finals of the Wray and Nephew National Premier League (NPL) as action heats up in today's penultimate round of preliminary games.
Portmore United are in third place on 56 points and need four from their last two games to guarantee their place while Village are in fifth position on 53, the same as Waterhouse but trail on goal differential.
Portmore could secure their place today if they get maximum points from their clash against strugglers Invaders at the Elliston Wakeland Centre and Waterhouse or Village fail to secure maximum points.
Village will be away to another struggling western team, Seba United at Jarrett Park, with the home team desperately fighting for their survival as anything but three points could see them being relegated from the NPL for the second time in three seasons.
Meanwhile at Frome, Reno should secure their survival with a win over the already relegated Star Cosmos. The St. Mary outfit has had problems from the start of the season and has not been able to field a legal starting team in a number of matches. Just two days ago they were docked three points after using an ineligible player in their home draw against Harbour View. This is the third time in this third round that they have lost points for using ineligible players in games that were drawn on the field.
DRAWS
Despite their low position, Reno have shown some fight and in their past two home games with draws against Rivoli and Waterhouse.
However, the focus of attention will be on Portmore and Village as they seek to join Tivoli in the last four.
Both will go into their games with marked advantages but must stamp their class. Village, in particular, must try to get goals as they trail Waterhouse in that department. Waterhouse will be at Arnett who, despite they being out of contention, will be playing for pride.
Village will be seeking their fifth straight win in the NPL and will be up against a Seba team that looked disorganised for long periods in their loss to Invaders on Wednesday.
Seba had a hard time stopping Thomas Grant who scored a doubled on Wednesday and will have an even harder time trying to keep out Village's Daniel Ric-ketts, Shane Crawford, Fabian Dawkins and Ian McAnuff.
The Seba defence ran out of gas late in the game and against a fit and hard-running Village could be in lots of trouble.
Norman Foster and Cornwall College schoolboy Lushane Brent-Harris, one of three who played on Wednesday, looked dangerous at times for Seba but lacked support especially from the midfield despite the presence of national Under-23 player Damion Williams who made way for Jahvon Russell midway through the second half.
STRUGGLING TEAMS
Portmore beat Invaders 3-0 in their last meeting but since then have won just two of their four games, all against struggling teams.
They should have the measure of Invaders today but cannot be complacent against a team that dominated in their last game, albeit against Seba United.
Grant, in particular, Huwayne Blake, Recardo Geddes and Delroy Ellis would love nothing better than to score a second straight win to try and ensure their team lines up in the NPL next season.
It will be tough for Invaders to pull off an upset, however, as Portmore will have the likes of Roen Nelson, Oniel 'Chippy' McDonald, Winston Griffiths, Anthony Modeste and Wolry Wolfe, all seasoned campaigners.
