Big clashes litter JPL’s Easter
Published:Sunday | April 5, 2026 | 12:07 AMLivingston Scott - Gleaner Writer
The Jamaica Premier League (JPL) comes alive this Easter weekend with three mouth-watering clashes on the cards.
In the feature of the three match ups, second-place Mount Pleasant host third-place Racing United at Drax Hall at 7 p.m., leaders Montego Bay United travel to Ferdi Neita Park to face fourth-place Portmore United, while in the cross-town derby, Waterhouse play host to arch rivals Arnett at the Drewsland Stadium at 6:30 p.m.
Mount Pleasant (56 points), are two ahead of their opponent Racing United in the standings, but neither have been experiencing their best form right now.
Mount Pleasant have won only once in their last three matches, while for Racing it has been even longer, with only one taste of victory in their last five games.
Mount Pleasant suffered a major upset in their last match, losing 1-0 to bottom-of-the-table Spanish Town Police.
Coach Theodore Whitmore said his charges are now feeling the effects of playing twice a week, and they will take the game-by-game approach and see how best they came mitigate the situation.
“We have to lick our wounds and come again,” he said.
“But these rescheduled games have been haunting us, but we have to put this (defeat) behind us and go again.”
“Our objective is one game at a time. We have a couple games to go and we just want to take it one game at a time,” he said.
Raheem Edwards leads the team in scoring, but Whitmore believes ace striker Warner Brown is also getting back to form in time for the business end of the season.
“Warner just have to continue to work hard. He has been doing well in training. He just need to continue to work hard, dig in and it will come,” he stated.
Racing have drawn their last three matches, but for captain Markovic Brown, the silver lining in their goalless draw with Treasure Beach, was keeping a cleansheet.
“We conceded a few goals in the last few games and we came and got a clean sheet. We didn’t get the win, but it was a good game,” he stated.
The Racing skipper knows how tough it is to play against the St Ann club, and insist that a draw would be better than losing.
“We have drawn 15 games in all, not just three on the trot, but it’s better to draw than lose because if you look at it mathematically, if you take away those 15 draws and turn them into losses, we would be in seventh or eighth place.
“We could have won some of those games also, but we are looking at it from the positive side. Our problem is converting the chances and we will have a surprise coming very soon,” he said.
At Ferdi Neita Park, hosts Portmore United (51) are 10 points behind the league leaders MoBay, but have shown that they can raise their game whenever they go against teams higher in the table.
Portmore have lost two of their last three and another defeat today could see them lose fourth spot to Waterhouse, who are only two points behind.
MoBay have shown a level of consistency this season yet to be matched, although they had a blip against Chapelton a few weeks ago, they have steadied the ship once again, and with the return of midfield ace Dwight Merrick, from national duties, they will fancy themselves taking three points.
At Drewsland, Waterhouse will start clear favourites against an inconsistent Arnett Gardens.
Although Arnett (40), have won once in four games, they are just two points off Cavalier in the sixth and final playoff spot. So the Philip Williams-coached team will be motivated to win what could mark an important step towards playoff qualification.
Waterhouse, on the other hand, have lost just one game in their last four and playing at home, they will be confident of getting the better of their perennial rivals.