Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

HAVING SEEN their chances of lifting the title rapidly fading away, defending champions Harbour View and rivals Waterhouse will focus on keeping their places in the league's elite six when they meet in a rescheduled fixture at 7:00 at the Harbour View Mini Stadium tonight.

With the grand expectations and ambitions of both teams coming into this season, it could be conceived as almost insulting to find themselves competing with the Cash Plus Premier League's (CPPL) lower half for the final round of the competition.

Implemented this season, the new fourth round will see the teams in the top half of the league (at the end of the third round) compete with each other, while the teams in the bottom half of the table will play among themselves. With both teams struggling to find consistent form since the beginning of the third round and with red-hot Village United finishing the season like a freight train, the possibility of them missing the top-of-the-table section isn't far fetched.

However, neither Harbour View coach Lenworth Hyde or Water-house coach Wayne Fairclough have given up on the season and admit today's game will be a crucial one. The meeting will be the first for the teams since the final of the KSAFA Jackie Bell final had to be abandoned due to unruly spectators.

Play to the end

"We haven't given up. We will play to the end and we are looking to get as many points as possible," said Hyde. "We haven't been losing, we have just drawn too many, so we are hoping to turn some of those points into threes and see where it goes from there," he said.

"It's a very important game today but we are eyeing moving closer to the leaders and we are playing good football. We just need to put away our chances." Putting away chances has perhaps got even more difficult for the 'Stars of the East' following the departure of their top striker, Fabian Taylor, to Norwegian club Notodden FK last week. However, Hyde did express confidence in the strikers still at the club.

Harbour View will also see the return of defender Christopher Harvey, who has not played for the club in the past two fixtures.

Meanwhile, Fairclough has also had to struggle with departures from his team at a key time of the season as talisman Kevin Lamey and midfielder Irvino English have both left to play in Trinidad. "Losing those players has affected us tremendously, but we will have to look to rebuild our team chemistry that has always brought us success," Fairclough said.

"It's a big game in all respects. We need it if we are going to make up any ground on the leaders. We need it to regain some confidence and boost our morale," he said.

"Of course, we haven't given up. No one knows what tomorrow brings so our focus is on winning our remaining games."

In three fixture so far this season, Harbour View have won two games - both at the Compound, one of which was the abandoned final, which was later awarded to the team, while the other game ended in a 1-1 draw at Drewsland.

Harbour View are fifth with 40 points, while Waterhouse are sixth with 42, there are three third-round games remaining for each team after today.