Harbour View's Jermaine Hue. - File
NECK AND neck at the top of the standings, Harbour View and defending champions Portmore United are aiming for maximum points in tough third-round Digicel Premier League fixtures this afternoon.
The joint leaders, with a five-point gap over the next tier, have 44 points and will face mid-table teams who are desperately seeking to gain every available point on disposal, as the league gets more defined.
A place in the top six automatically removes the possibility of demotion, as well as enhancing title claims, and St Georges and Arnett, joint fifth on 34 and sixth with 32 points, respectively, are fighting their battle on different turfs.
Also included in the mid-table set-up are Waterhouse, also on 34 points, but away to Rivoli.
There are nine more matches this round and five in the fourth.
Harbour View are travelling to face St Georges in a contest with the word revenge splattered all over it, that's set to begin at 3:30 p.m. at Lynch Park, the windy Buff Bay venue that has largely been a virtual cemetery for visiting teams.
Portmore, the defending champions, are also on the road, visiting improving Arnett Gardens for a 5 p.m. contest in the 'Jungle'.
"It's a very important game," noted Portmore United's coach, Linval Dixon. "It's so close at the top that you can't afford to slip, because as you slip you start to lose ground and will have to play catch-up."
Harbour View's assistant coach, Donovan 'DV' Hayles, reckons the same.
"There's no room for errors so we can't afford to not garner points," he cautioned. "It's going to be a difficult task, St Georges is a very formidable team at home. But every three points we can get we've to go for it and we fancy ourselves of getting three points at Georges.'
Problem is, the homesters share a similar belief and are fired up by the 5-0 hammering they took at Harbour View in the last meeting between the teams.
"This is a game the team has been waiting on for quite some weeks," said Geoffrey Maxwell, St Georges' coach. "This (winning) is a very big motivation and we believe that in Portland we have a pretty good home record. We've only lost once. The team is very ready and we're looking for the full three points."
Never lost to Harbour View
Prior to that battering, St George's, competing in their second premier league season, had never lost to Harbour View in four match-ups. Hayles, though, is cognisant of their avenging intentions and says they're ready to counter.
"When a team is beaten badly they surely want to get some measure of revenge and get themselves in some mental state to say it's a one-off situation," he reasoned.
The form of both teams has not been great in their last five games, even though they have won once. Harbour View's other four matches have ended in draws, while St Georges practically had a free-fall, losing three of their four.
Harbour View have a full squad to choose from, with leading scorer Lovel Palmer, midfield maestro Jermaine Hue, Marcelino Blackburn, Rafeik Thomas and Kavin Bryan, among a large and capable offensive group, to choose from.
St Georges' chances will be hampered with four regular starters unavailable - three to injuries and another sidelined by an accumulation of yellow cards. Despite that, Maxwell, whose team has won five of its last eight home matches, remains convinced they can triumph, and must, to rekindle their title aspirations.
"The Harbour View game is a must-win game. This is the game that has to be our turning point. There are 45 points for the taking before the premier league finishes and this is the round where the premier league starts," he argued.
Daniel Shaw has been their top scorer and could prove dangerous, especially if presented with free kicks around goal.
Kevin Wilson netted a beautiful one for Arnett Gardens last Sunday and could be priming himself for another such opportunity, as his team looks to buck a losing trend against champions Portmore.
Having suffered 1-0 losses home and away, his coach Fabian Davis, who is also a starting midfielder in the team, figures they must do some key things to succeed.
"Going out there and keeping our team shape, keeping our team discipline," he noted.
"We've set a team goal ... we'd love to achieve 26 points in this round," David continued. "We're taking it one game at a time. We know our task is going to be tough because they're pretty talented, but we're ready to go out there and give a great team effort.
"We've always said that once we score the goals we create then we can win. We created a lot of chances when we played them the last time, but we lacked concentration in the last five minutes and we paid for it.
Unbeaten
"Once we're scoring goals there's no doubt about us winning and taking those three points," added Davis, whose team conceded a last-minute goal to lose at Portmore when they last met.
Since then, Arnett have improved personnel and results tremendously, staying unbeaten in their past six matches while recording a high percentage of four victories.
It's a fact not lost on Dixon, whose team has won once, drawn three times and lost one in their past five matches.
"When you look at the Arnett Gardens team, it's a team that is improving quite a lot," said the former national sweeper. "One thing we should look at really is that Fabian Davis, their coach, is motivating his charges.
"We played them twice before, yes, we beat them, but this round is a very tricky round. We want to do well in the early stage of this round. Everybody is coming really hard, some teams want to make the top six and some want to get out of the bottom to avoid relegation," Dixon pointed out.
Today's matches
St Georges vs Harbour View
Lynch Park at 3:30 p.m.
Reno FC vs Tivoli Gardens
Frome Sports Club at 3:30 p.m.
Village United vs Boys' Town
Elleston Wakeland Community Centre at 3:30 p.m.
Meadhaven vs Sporting Central Academy
Constant Spring at 3:30 p.m.
Rivoli vs Waterhouse
Spanish Town Prison Oval at 4 p.m.
Arnett Gardens vs Portmore United
Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex at 5 p.m.
Standings
(Tabulate under Teams, Play, Win, Draw, Lose, Goals For, Goals Against, Second Round Points, Total Points)
Teams P W D L GF GA RP TP
H View 23 12 8 3 29 10 3 44
Portmore 23 12 8 3 33 16 1 44
Tivoli 23 11 6 6 28 18 0 39
Boys' Town 23 1 1 6 6 34 26 0 39
St Georges 23 9 7 7 19 19 0 34
W'house 23 9 7 7 32 28 3 34
Arnett 23 9 5 9 18 19 3 32
Rivoli 23 6 7 10 23 31 1 25
Village 23 4 8 11 20 33 0 20
Meadhaven 23 6 5 12 20 32 3 23
Reno 23 3 10 10 25 31 3 19
Sporting 23 4 7 12 19 34 3 19