Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
ARNETT GARDENS and Sandy Bay enter today's Red Stripe Champions Cup All-Island Knockout quarter-final encounters against Portmore and Reno respectively with slight advantages from the first legs and will be hoping to make full use of their home turf.
Arnett Gardens, smarting from a 1-0 defeat to Harbour View in the National Premier League on Sunday, will try to rebound and hold off the dangerous Portmore United at the Tony Spaulding Complex at 5:00 p.m.. They won the first leg 1-0 at the Ferdie Neita Park two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Sandy Bay of Hanover welcome Reno of Westmoreland to Kenilworth after securing a 0-0 draw at Frome, and could continue their giant-killing run based on their impressive home record.
FAVOURITES TO ADVANCE
In the feature clash of the round between two Premier League teams, Arnett Gardens, without Onandi Lowe, are favourites to advance to the semi-finals but only a foolish man would write off the chances of the Premier League leaders.
The last time Portmore went into the 'Jungle' they comprehensively destroyed the home team 3-0 and a repeat performance is not beyond them.
Striker Kevin Deerr will be boosted by his national recall and along with Roen Nelson, Anthony Modeste, Chris Dawes and Wolry Wolfe could overturn the one-goal deficit and once again silence the Arnett faithful.
Arnett Gardens will be without Lowe, but that might be a blessing in disguise as there should be more movement up front to give the Portmore defenders more food for thought.
A TOUGH TASK ON HAND
Kevin Wilson, scorer in the first leg, will again link up with Patrick Beech in a 3-5-2 formation. Beech, since his transfer from Rivoli, has not really set Arnett fans alight and today might be his day.
Michael Tulloch, head coach of Arnett Gardens, knows he has a tough task on hand to hold off the St. Catherine team. "No game is ever easy and the Portmore game is a game we have to win. We just have to apply ourselves," Tulloch said.
"We have a slim one goal advantage and we just have to maintain that," he said.
Meanwhile, Paul Young, coach of Portmore United, is hoping for an early goal to cancel Arnett's advantage. "The first thing is to try and get an early goal but if we don't get that we cannot get frustrated and not give up anymore goals," Young said.
But he is optimistic, based on his team's last visit to the Tony Spaulding Complex. "The last time we went down there we had a good result and hopefully we can repeat that performance," he said.
The winner of this tie will meet either Waterhouse of Rivoli in the semi-finals.
Over in Kenilworth, Sandy Bay will want to continue their giant-killing run against struggling Premier League outfit Reno.
Sandy Bay, coached by Mark Calvin, failed to make it to the last four of the Western Confederation Super League but last season's Hanover Sandals Negril Division One champions have so far accounted for two Trelawny teams, Lacers and Premier League team Village, in the previous rounds.
In both cases, Sandy Bay used their home ground advantage to full effect; they had drawn 1-1 against Lacers at Elliston Wakeland before winning 2-0 at home.
In the next round, they took an improbable 2-0 lead over Village in the first leg and despite losing 1-0 at Elliston Wakeland, advanced to the last eight with a 2-1 aggregate. Based on their impressive record at home, Reno might be added to the list.
Reno have progressed easily so far, eliminating fellow Premier League contenders Constant Spring in the first round with a 2-0 aggregate before ending St. Elizabeth team Holland Police Youth Club's hopes.
The winner of this tie between Sandy Bay and Reno will then advance to the semi-final where they will face the winner of the tie between Harbour View and Tivoli Gardens on Sunday, May 15.
