Boys' Town host Harbour View in Premier League feature

Nodley Wright, Sunday Gleaner Writer

The battle to avoid the drop and to claim the Digicel Premier League (DPL) title intensifies today with the start of the fourth round with a full set of games.

In contention for the title are leaders Tivoli Gardens on 61 points, Boys' Town on 56 and defending champions Harbour View with 51. With just five points behind the leaders, Boys' Town have the more realistic chance of overhauling the leaders while Harbour View's chances appear more mathematical than anything else.

Waterhouse and Portmore United, both on 47 points, would still fancy their chances but only a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the leaders and a miraculous improvement of the form of Waterhouse and Portmore United could see them getting close to the title. Village United are out of the running but are sitting pretty, based on the fact that they have avoided the scrap for survival and are guaranteed at least one more year in the country's top League.

The game of the top half of the table will see former giants Boys' Town and the team most likely to reel in Tivoli Gardens, host Harbour View at Collie Smith Drive. In the three previous meetings between the two teams, Harbour View hammered the Red Brigade 5-1 before losing 2-1 in the second. The third game ended 0-0.

Waterhouse defeated Portmore United 1-0 the last time they met and this game could go either way while Tivoli Gardens should be fancied to get the edge over Village United despite beating them just once in three meetings.

But while a lot of interest will be on the top of the League, more attention will probably be focused on the bottom half of the table where the trio of St Georges, Benfica and Humble Lion have been trading the relegation spots among them for most of the season. Of the three, Benfica are probably in the best position sitting just above the relegation zone and will host St Georges.

St Georges have shown a lot of fight since coming under the guidance of Geoffrey Maxwell. Even with the loss of their inspirational captain Jermaine Taylor to a long overdue professional move abroad, fellow defender Ricardo Taylor and forward Dever Orgill, they have remained competitive. Girvon Brown and Romeo Parkes have done well for Geoffrey Maxwell who has maintained that, "six teams are in a battle to avoid relegation and we are confident that we will survive."

Counting on home advantage

Humble Lion's Lenworth Hyde Sr, despite his unquestionable qualities as a coach, has struggled to get the best out of his Clarendon-based team even with the addition of proven goalscorer Kevin Lamey. Today he will be counting on home advantage to give them the edge over Reno Football club when both teams meet at Effortville.

Reno should not be seen as pushovers as for most of the season they sat in the top half of the table before a loss of form saw them slip. If there are any positives to be derived from Jamaica's failure to advance in the Under-20 World Cup, Reno would see that with the return to their fold of the competition's leading scorer Craig Foster.

In other games, Sporting Central and Arnett Gardens will continue the fight to keep their heads above the water when they meet at Brancourt. None of them can afford to lose.

Today's games:

• 3:30 p.m.: Village United vs Tivoli Gardens - Elliston Wakeland Centre
  
• 3:30 p.m.: Boys' Town vs Harbour View - Boys' Town
  
• 3:30 p.m: Humble Lion vs Reno - Effortville Community Centre
  
• 3:30 p.m.: Sporting Central Academy vs Arnett Gardens FC - Brancourt
  
• 3:30 p.m.: Benfica vs St Georges - Drax Hall6:00 p.m.: Waterhouse vs Portmore United - Drewsland Stadium