Western Bureau:

Champions Godfrey Stewart High will be among the teams seeking to repeat first round wins today when action resumes in the 2006 ISSA/Pepsi/JN daCosta Cup with 58 of the 65 competitors in action across 10 of the competition's 12 competing zones.

After starting the defence of their title with a 1-0 win against Zone C rivals Manning's, the Godfrey Stewart team should be in damage control mode for today's return game, having lost and drawn a game apiece since that Jarrett Park success.

According to coach Carl 'Long Life' Palmer, he is expecting a much-improved second round showing.

Aiming to improve

"We will definitely be aiming to improve on our first round showing because our first target is to win the zone and qualify for the Ben Francis Cup," said Palmer. "We started the season with our sights set on retaining our title and that remains our ultimate target."

While the champions will be playing catch-up, others teams such as Frome Technical (Zone B), Clarendon College (Zone H) and Spaldings (Zone G), who will be seeking to preserve 100% win records; and St. Elizabeth Technical (Zone E), Grange Hill (Zone C) and Glenmuir (Zone I), will be gunning to keep their unbeaten record intact.

One of the games that should be closely watched is the Zone B match-up between the red-hot Frome and Knockalva, which they hammered 5-0 in the first round. While the Knockalva team is not expected to show any significant improvement, it will be interesting to see how far Frome will take their unbeaten run in light of claims by some pundits that they look a cut above the other teams in the competition.

The Zone A clash between joint leaders Herbert Morrison and William Knibb, jointly on seven points, should be a ding-dong affair. The teams battled to a 1-1 first round draw but both camps are quite resolute in their bid to break the deadlock, which would see the winner taking over sole leadership of the game.

While STETHS are tipped to improve on their first round 9-0 mauling of Maggotty, the main interest outside of a big win is whether the Maggotty team will be able to breach the STETHS defence, which has been impregnable all season. STETHS have scored 22 goals and not given up any in their five games.

Set for more success

Whether one still wishes to buy into coach Jackie Walters' claim that Glenmuir's campaign this year is to start building a team for the future, after four wins and a draw in their first round campaign, they look set for more success. In fact, should they repeat their first round win over Vere Technical today, they may well be seen as one of the legitimate contenders for the title.

With several teams seemingly in a good position to catch them in the race for group honours, the awesome-looking Titchfield, the run-away leader in the competition's mega-zone L, will be aiming to put more daylight between themselves and the chasing pack. It would appear a safe bet that they will do just that as Yallahs, which they blanked 3-0 in the first round, are unlikely to provide more than a token challenge.

- Adrian Frater

Today's matches