Santos, Mountain View going all out in Kingston Three showdown

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

A pulsating encounter is expected in the Kingston Three derby when leaders Santos clash with sixth-place Mountain View in today's feature Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) Claro Super League matchup at Excelsior High School, starting at 3 p.m.

Santos will be looking to stretch their winning streak to six league games and, in the process, maintain their one-point lead atop the standings. They have scored 3-0 victories in their last two outings, beating quality opposition in the form of Rae Town and Constant Spring.

Santos also boast the league's leading goalscorer, Fabian Nethersole, who has scored five of his 11 goals in his team's last two games, including a hat-trick.

Santos' coach, Carlton 'Spanner' Dennis, will be going all out for the win.

Game will be hard

"It will be a hard game because they (Mountain View) always want to beat us, so we are expecting a hard fight," Dennis said.

"We are going there to play our honest game. We have to start the round better than how we started the first one, we have to start with three points. So we are going all out to win the game," he added of the team against whom they drew 0-0 in the first round.

Mountain View have featured in the most draws in the league - seven - three of which have come in their last three games. However, they have only lost once and ended the first round unbeaten at home.

Last week, they secured their 16th point, when they allowed the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to come from behind twice to achieve a 2-2 draw.

Omar Stanley, the coach of Mountain View, is also looking forward to a win.

"We always have some keen contests with them (Santos) and we don't expect this one to be any easier, we expect a tough game," Stanley said.

"We want to make our home ground a tough place for any opponent to come and get any good result, we are looking forward to a win," he added.

Other matches

In the round's other matches, second-place Cavalier (24 points) will be looking to maintain their unbeaten home record when they entertain ninth-place Bull Bay (10) at the Spring Complex. The Spring Complex will also be the venue

for the matchup between fourth-place Constant Spring (18) - who are also unbeaten at home - and 11th-place Meadhaven United (6).

The bottom-place team Maver-ley/Hughenden (4) will journey to Breezy Castle to take on third-place Rae Town (22), while 10th-place Duhaney Park (7) will host fifth-place JDF (17) at Baldwin Crescent. The other game in the round will see seventh-place Barbican (15) hosting eighth-place Real Mona (11 points) at the Barbican playing field.

All matches are slated to get under way at 3 p.m., except for the Cavalier vs Bull Bay game, which kicks off at 1 p.m.