STILL TO win their first game in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League, St. Catherine's second team in the competition, Naggo Head, will continue the quest against their more affluent neighbours Portmore United at 3:00 p.m. in the only clash of its kind at Ferdie Neita Park on a day when the knockout competition kicks off.

Coach Wayne Fairclough knows that it will take a lot for his youthful aggregation to get the better of their more seasoned opponents - a number of whom have donned the national colours.

His team, he said, will not be daunted by that.

"They are a more potent force than us, but we have been training hard for the past week," Fairclough said. "We have done a lot of finishing work, an area that we have fallen short on, so come this game we will see how far we have come and it should be interesting," added Fairclough, whose team will be hard-pressed to nullify the charges of the likes of Onandi Lowe, Kevin Deerr, Wolry Wolfe, Jason Morrison and Carlington Smith.

While his side is made up mostly of schoolboys, Fairclough believes they have enough quality and enthusiasm to surprise.

"We have a nicely-balanced team with the experience of people like Layton Barrett, Patrick Edmondson, Denton Shedden and Mark Newsome, along with Jamaica Under-20 representative Kenardo Forbes in midfield, Waterford captain Mark Darby as well as Oliver Blake and Christopher Allen of Kingston College.

In addition to those players, we have goalkeeper Jacomena Barrett who was loaned to us from Portmore United following an impressive season in Trinidad and Tobago," Fairclough said.

These players, he said, have been together for about seven games and should have developed some chemistry and more experience which will serve them well in their bid to climb from the bottom of the table where they sit with three points and achieve what seems impossible at this stage - beating the relegation trap.

Portmore United have for the first time this season managed to get back-to-back wins and will be aiming to continue that as they set up their charge for the title in the third round.

"We have tried to build up a little run and have succeeded for the first time in a while and we intend to keep that going," said Portmore coach Paul Young. "The fact that they (Naggo Head) have not won a game yet could tempt one to write them off even before the match starts but we will not be doing that. "We will be taking them as seriously as we would take any opponent because they too will have ambitions of getting their first win so we have to do our best to ensure that it does not happen against us," Young said.

A win for the former champions would put them a point behind third-place Reno and within striking distance of the top two. They should go in as overwhelming favourites and anything but a win for them would be a big surprise.

TODAY'S GAME

Portmore vs Naggo Head at Ferdie Neita Park - 3:30 p.m.