Harbour View keen to win

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Defending champions Harbour View are keen to recover from an early-season stumble that has left the club winless in their last three games. But it will be a tough task when rivals Boys' Town pay a visit to the Compound for a 7 p.m. showdown in today's round of Digicel Premier League games.

After a promising start to the season with two consecutive wins, the Stars of the East have found themselves in seventh position and thus in the lower half of a very competitive league table.

However, while he does not believe it is cause for alarm, as they find themselves only three points off the lead, returning to winning ways is something Harbour View coach, Donovan Hayles, is anxious to experience.

"It's a strange position to be in but it's not really a slump. We are still very close to the top, but at the same time you don't want that sort of thing to begin to affect the mentality of the players, so we will be looking to get back to winning ways come today," Hayles told The Gleaner.

"When you have a look at the table, things are very close from the bottom to the top, we are not that far from the top, right in it, we just have to start stringing some good results together," he added.

Off to one of their most promising starts in the last few seasons, Boys' Town will be keen on keeping their momentum going, but will be aware of the fact that they have lost their last three league encounters against Harbour View.

Tough fixture

Joint leaders Waterhouse will also have their hands full when they host Tivoli Gardens at Drewsland. A win for the west Kingston team could see them close in on the lead, despite having a game in hand against Humble Lion, which was postponed last week due to inclement weather.

"Tivoli-Waterhouse is always going to be a tough fixture, but we have been working hard despite some setbacks in terms of weather conditions over the past few weeks and we are expecting a positive result," said Alvin Shaw, coach of Tivoli Gardens.

The west Kingston team has scored eight goals, led by national player Navion Boyd, who has netted twice - the most in the league for Tivoli this season - while conceding a measly two, and Shaw expects continued con-sistency from his backline, which will have to put up with a high-scoring Waterhouse forward line, that has also hit the net eight times.

Portmore, who currently share the lead with Waterhouse, will travel to Brancourt where they face a Sporting Central team that has looked solid in its past couple of games. The St Catherine team will hope the inpsirational Steven Morrisey, who has a league-high three goals, continues his rich form.

Point Standings

TeamsPWDLGFGAGDPTSPortmore531184410W'house531184410Boys' Town531163310Tivoli43018269Reno52125237Sporting52127527H View52125507Arnett521247-37Benfica5212710-37Village5122611-55H Lion 401315-41St Georges5014512-71

Today's Games

3:30 p.m. Benfica vs Arnett Gardens at Drax Hall

7 p.m. Harbour View vs Boys' Town at Habour View Mini Stadium

3:30 p.m. Reno vs Village United at Frome Sports Complex

3:30 p.m. Sporting Central Academy vs Portmore United at Brancourt

6:30 p.m. St Georges vs Humble Lion at Lynch Park

5 p.m. Waterhouse vs Tivoli Gardens at Drewsland Mini Stadium