Tivoli's Boyd and Boys' Town's Lloyd

Two big showdowns loom in today's Claro/Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) Champions League semi-finals at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex in Arnett Gardens.

Waterhouse take on August Town in the first semi-final at 5 p.m., while in the feature match at 7 p.m., defending Premier League champions Tivoli Gardens clash with Boys' Town.

The final is set for Tuesday, at a venue to be anounced.

top striker

August Town will create problems for Waterhouse and they carry into the match a league-leading nine goals in three matches, including a 6-1 thrashing of Greenwich Town, when Jermaine Simpson scored a brace.

Simpson is the tournament's top striker with four goals and will get support from Kemeel Mullings.

August Town's coach, Calvert Fitzgerald, is confident that his team will do well.

"I hope we continue where we left off in the preliminaries, which is to keep possession of the ball, play with discipline and keep the shape of the team. If we do all of that then we should do well.

"Waterhouse are traditionally a tough team to beat so we have to continue playing well and play as a team to be successful," he added.

Waterhouse will counter through the likes of Jermaine Anderson and Roberto Fletcher. Both have scored vital goals for the Firehouse team.

Meanwhile, Boys' Town will be missing the services of striker Peter Keyes and Michael Campbell, who are on national duty.

Keyes was on target twice against Harbour View, after they stunned the latter 4-2 on Thursday.

replacements

Waterhouse's Anderson and August Town's Simpson

Boys' Town will also be without forward George Vernal and Garfield Gillespie, both of whom are abroad. However, Boys' Town's coach, Andrew Price, insists that they have adequate replacements.

"We have adequate replacements to do the job. Renae Lloyd, Damion Benjamin and Wayne Ellis are playing well," Price said in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner.

He added: "Both coaches will be using this game as a barometer in preparation for the Premier League season. However, we are going to put on a good showing as any tournament we enter we want to come out on top," Price emphasised.

Tivoli's history-making coach, Lenwworth Hyde Sr, said the game will be quite competitive and they will be going all out to win.

"It is our first tournament of the season and we want to start on a winning note," Hyde said.

Hyde, the man who holds the distinction of coaching three different clubs to the Premier League title, spoke about the rivalry the teams have had over the years and that alone will make it a tough game. He is also using the tournament to prepare for the Premier League.

"We have tried a number of players in this tournament and I am impressed with our new signings, the Arnett Gardens pair of Julian McLeish and Horace Sharpe and former Meadhaven player Jermaine Ricketts," Hyde said.

He is expecting Ricketts, Jermaine Allen and Navion Boyd to lead them to victory.

However, they will miss the goalscoring attributes of Orane Simpson, who will be on national duties.

preliminary round

In preliminary round action, August Town were quite impressive, topping Zone A with seven points from three matches, ahead of Tivoli (four) and Arnett (four). Zone B was a ding-dong battle between arch-rivals Waterhouse (seven) and Boys' Town (seven). Both teams had the same goal difference. However, Boys' Town topped the zone by virtue of scoring more goals than Waterhouse.

Two Premier League teams got knocked out in the preliminaries - Arnett Gardens, in Zone A, which just missed out on the semi-finals, beaten on goal difference by Tivoli; and Harbour View in Zone B, which finished a distant third on three points.