Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE BATTLE for the two qualifying places in the four-team Wray & Nephew National Premier League play-offs intensify this afternoon when the competition moves into its second round with one game in Clarendon and another in St. James.

Leaders St. George's (seven points) will play away to third-placed Sporting Central at Brancourt (four) in Clarendon; while second-placed Granville FC (six) will entertain Police National (0) at the Sam Sharpe Teachers College ground. Both games are slated to start at 3:30 p.m.

Based on their first-round game, which ended in a 0-0 draw in Portland, the match-up between St. George's, the Eastern Confederation champions, and Sporting Central, the Central Jamaica winners, should be a keenly contested affair as both teams will be hell-bent on not dropping any points.

After their first-round draw, Sporting Central's coach, Kevin Williams, blamed the uneven playing surface and promised that come the return game, the Donavan Duckie-coached St. George's would see the real Sporting Central on their lush-green Brancourt turf.

Heavy favourites

In the second game at the Sam Sharpe grounds, Western champions Granville FC are heavily favoured to improve on their first-round away 1-0 win against Kingston & St. Andrew's Police National, who lost all three first-round games.

Having dropped the points in their surprise second game loss to St. George's, Granville's coach, Tracey Reid, said it was a wake-up call for her team, and has promised no further slip-ups as it seeks its first berth in NPL football.

In their bid to upstage St. George's, the Sporting Central team will be banking on the likes of Cornell Learmond, Onieke Ford and Linval Lewis, while St. George's will be aiming to counter through Omar Brissette, Donavan Davis and Damion Harwood, who has scored four goals in his past two games.

Granville, who showed complete mastery on their home turf on Sunday, will be banking heavily on burly striker Jermaine Anderson, midfielders Deshaun Wollery and Jason Rose and Shannon Brown, who scored twice against Sporting Central.