Heat on at National Stadium

Left to right Cargill and Waite

Nodley Wright, Staff Reporter

HARBOUR VIEW will have the toughest assignment when the second leg of the Craven A National Premier League (NPL) semi-finals begin at the National Stadium today.

At 3:30 p.m. they go up against Arnett Gardens who beat them 2-0 in the first leg semi-final a week ago. Waterhouse and Tivoli Gardens, who will meet in the opener at 1:30 p.m., ended goalless last week.

The Tivoli Gardens/ Waterhouse encounter is of no less importance than that of Arnett Gardens and Harbour View, but most football observers will have their eyes planted on the second game. To them, last week's result was a shocker as for most of the season Harbour View "owned" Arnett Gardens.

Harbour View coach Peter Cargill is one who is convinced last week's result does not represent a turning of the tables.

"Well definitely we can turn it around. It is another game. We had some problems last time. We just have to turn that around and turn the game in our favour and give of our best Sunday," Cargill said.

Though his team had some minor problems last week, Cargill said he would not make any excuses but give credit to the opposing team.

Harbour View's offence could be boosted by the inclusion of Fabian Taylor and attacking midfielder Daniel Shaw. Shaw missed the last game because of a red card while Taylor, who had a groin injury, was not back to full fitness.

Jerome Waite, Cargill's opposite number, while enjoying the 2-0 cushion of his team, has tried to keep his players level-headed.

"We are doing well in our preparations and the players have responded well," Waite said.

"There is definitely no feeling here that we are already in the final. Come Sunday that game starts at 0-0 so we will be approaching it like that."

All his players Waite said have been training well and are fully fit. His only concerns were the duo of Fabian Davis and Byron Earle who both received stiches in the game last week for facial injuries.

Tivoli Gardens, who are still ruing two missed chances by Christopher Nicholas, will be hoping for a better goalscoring day.

"I hope those chances will not hurt us. It was our hope that if we got chances that we would have made use of them. It is not an easy thing to get chances and I hope they don't come back to haunt us," said Tivoli coach Dave Clarke ahead of the matchup with Waterhouse.

"To tell you the truth they (the players) have me scared. Up until Wednesday they did not seem focussed. They spent most of the time fussing. This is nothing unusual though where you have people spending so much time around each other in that kind of setting (training situation)," Clarke explained.

Tivoli Gardens, for the second week running, will be missing key player. Last week Marlon Latty died while this week Amos Israel will be sitting out due to a red card. However, Clarke believes he has an adequate replacement in Orville Campbell.

Waterhouse's Kenneth "Bop" Campbell said his team was not fully prepared for Tivoli Gardens last week.

"I think we are ready now ... last week we were physically prepared but we were not mentally ready. I think we are ready now," Campbell said.

"I do not like to blow off my mouth or anything like that but I have to be positive. I think my team can go to the final and I believe the people have started to see it, so we have to go out there and perform," he said.

All the ingredients for his team to perform are in place. His key players, captain Irvino English, Kevin Lamey, Damion Powell and goalkeeper Loxley Reid, are all fit.

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