Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

FROM ONE end of the Corporate Area to the other, there should be high-quality football matches in the Digicel Premier League this afternoon, given that there will be face-offs among four of the top teams at Harbour View and Drewsland mini stadiums.

In western St Andrew, at Drewsland Mini Stadium, Water-house, third on 11 points, will host defending champions Portmore United, who are in a three-way tie for second with Tivoli Gardens and Boys' Town on 12, in the earlier of the big clashes set for a 3:00 p.m. kick-off.

Then at 6:30 p.m., at the other end of the city, leaders Harbour View, on 14 points, welcome Tivoli to Harbour View Mini Stadium in east Kingston.

All agree that the contests will be tough, scenarios that will be further influenced by the constant hustle for points to boost title hopes and the approaching end of first round final, which pits the top two in the 12-team field in battle for a trophy and money.

Eight of the 11 rounds will conclude today and among the top four, only Tivoli are on a winning streak with back-to-back successes. Harbour View and Portmore both lost at home on Wednesday and Waterhouse were pegged back in a 2-2 draw against Reno, a recurring feature of the Drewsland team's past three games in which they led only to end up with a point or less.

"A lack of concentration in the defensive aspect of our game, not necessarily the defenders, but the defensive aspect ... our marking, tracking and not winning the ball," is the assessment of Waterhouse's coach, Wayne Fairclough, as he pointed to their faults.

Offensively, they have been good with a league-leading 11 goals, two from year-in, year-out scorer Kevin Lamey in Wednesday's draw. Besides Lamey, another senior influential player, Vincent Earl, is back in the line-up to add to the danger posed by another proven goalscorer, Jermaine Anderson.

With the club set to honour Olympic hero Shelly-Ann Fraser at half-time, Fairclough hopes his players will repay their loyal fans who last celebrated a home win on October 5.

"The fans really need a morale-boosting win and we are putting 100 per cent into this game, knowing that losing will push us down the ladder. This one is for the Waterhouse fans come Sunday," he said.

Having suffered a shock 2-1 loss at home against Portland's St. Georges at midweek, Portmore's manager, Clive Marshall, says "it's very important" that they start winning again.

They have only done so once in their past five outings, but the manager says " ... we're not going to panic". "It is easier to win championships than to defend them and we are cognisant of that. Every game is going to be tough because everybody is coming to beat the champions. It's early days yet. The coaches just have to look at what went wrong and if there are any errors, they will make the corrections and move on," Marshall said.

Focusing specifically on the challenge at hand and their end of round final aspirations, Marshall, a former Calabar High playmaker from midfield, said: "Getting to the mid-season final, that is the first major trophy, the first major silverware so we are still aiming for the first end of round final." Carlington Smith has scored three of their seven goals and his strike partner, Steven Morrissey, is expected to also shoulder the main duties of finishing.

One player who has done that quite well this season is Harbour View's Lovel Palmer, who was absent from their midweek 1-0 loss against Arnett, as well as their key central midfielder, Richard Edwards.

piping hot

Both will return for this key match-up against Tivoli, whose captain and lead striker Roland Dean is piping hot.

"We dropped three points at home and we cannot afford to repeat that," noted Donovan Hayles, Harbour View's assistant coach.

"Defensively we've been playing extremely well. We have conceded three goals and they have all been from dead ball situations - two penalties and a free kick. What we have seen is the whole professional approach that our coach Waldermar (de Oliveira) has put in," Hayles said.