NPL season bounces back

Fitzroy Prendergast, Staff Reporter

TOP local football clubs begin their quest for championship honours whey they take the field this afternoon in the opening round of the Craven A National Premier League.

Three big clashes are scheduled for the corporate area while the other two take place in western Jamaica.

Champions Harbour View are at home to Hazard at the Harbour View Mini Stadium, Arnett Gardens host Constant Spring at the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex and Waterhouse and Tivoli square-off at Ferdie Neita Park.

While all three should attract huge support, the Reno-Seba clash at Frome and the Wadadah-Olympic Gardens game at Jarrett Park should also whet the appetite.

Harbour View, who dismissed the challenge of Waterhouse to win last year's title, are packed with former and current national players but their opponents, eager to make an impression in the league after finishing second in last year's A League, have a number of Reggae Boyz in their unit and are capable of doing the job against the home team.

"Our first objective is to win," said Peter Cargill, who only in his second season as coach of Harbour View, carried the East Kingston team to the title.

"More or less it will be a difficult one. We are expecting tough games. I think our opponents have been preparing for a long time so we have to respect them as well. They have at least four or five national players on their team. Very few of the Premier League teams have so many nationals on their team so they will be hard to break down."

Hazard's coach Christopher Bender believes his team is on par with Harbour View.

"There is not much diference between the top ten teams. It's just the organisation which makes the difference," Bender said.

Clifton Waugh, Barrington Gaynor, Damion Stewart, Robert Scarlett, Ali Rose, Boris Johnson and Oneil Smith are all seasoned Harbour View players and will be the ones expected to negate the efforts of national captain Linval Dixon, Claude Davis, Desmond Smith, Kevin Deerr and new signee Dwayne Richards.

Arnett Gardens, without Onandi Lowe, Kevin Wilson, Everton Bunsie, Eugene Barnes, Denton Shedden and Marcus McDonald, need a spirited effort at home to deal with last year's A League champions Constant Spring.

All six were banned for up to eight games for their role in tension-filled game against relegated Galaxy at Woodside last year.

Lowe is banned for one game, Wilson and Barnes for six and Shedden and McDonald for two but coach Jerome Waite is not overly concerned about their absence.

"We will be going on the offense," said Waite. "Playing at home, the opponent will be coming with caution ... not to open themselves to an Arnett Gardens which is more technically and tactically prepared," he said.

Danny Lyn is aware it will be tough in the "Jungle".

"Arnett Gardens are normally a difficult team to play at home because they have a large following and they play well at home. However, I don't think it's going to be a difficult situation. We were out of the league for only one year and we know what it takes," Lyn said.

A youthful brigade led by Cornel Chin-Sue and William Richards should ensure a competitive game with the 'Springs' marshalled by veterans Moses Brown, Patrick Reid and Lincoln Taffe.

Fireworks looms in Portmore where Waterhouse 1997-98 champions face the might of Tivoli under new coach Ali McNab.

McNab replaced Vernon Bell who carried Tivoli to title honours in the 1998-99 season but faltered in last year's championship in the semi-final stage.

The former national player is eager to prove his worth against the Geoffrey Maxwell aggregation and he has talent to do so with Jermaine Johnson, Steve Green, Kasai Hinds and Marco McDonald leading the charge. They will however have to contend with the class of Kevin Lamey, Damion Powell, Andrew Holloway and Alberto Fray in a game which could go either way.

At Frome, Reno with Kenrick Picknight, Chris Harris, new signee Stephen Malcom and Mark "Haglar" Wilson should find the going tough against Seba led by Hector Wright, while Wadadah playing at Jarrett Park and boasting the services of Durrent Brown, Warren Barrett, Austin Brown, Leroy Foster, Garth Peterkin and Markino Gillings will not have things there own way against Olympic Gardens, spurred on by Kevin Anderon, Oneil Dunn and Eddie Parks.

TODAY'S GAMES: