By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
IT IS only a month into the Wray and Nephew National Premier League (NPL) season but already former champions Reno and Tivoli are facing what they term "must win games" this afternoon.
Reno will play their second straight home game when they host the bubbling Constant Spring at the Frome Sports Ground.
Tivoli will travel to Montego Bay to face Seba United at Jarrett Park.
In a third game out west, Invaders will face Rivoli United at home at the Elleston-Wakeland Community Centre. All games will kick-off at 3:30 p.m.
Both Reno and Tivoli are playing for new coaches, the Westmoreland team taking orders from the much-travelled Geoffrey Maxwell and are one of three teams yet to record a win so far.
The other two teams are promoted Invaders and Star Cosmos. Tivoli will be under the guidance of Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey, they have lost three straight.
Maxwell believes if his team is to stay in touch with the early leaders it must win this afternoon. The former three-time winners are 10th in the 12-team league on three points, leading only Invaders and Star Cosmos.
Their opponents, Constant Spring, have gotten off to a flyer, winning three of four games to be joint leaders with Harbour View on nine points.
In the days following last Sunday's loss to Village at home, Maxwell issued what sounded like veiled threats to his team, urging them to start winning. He told reporters after Sunday's loss that he would be doing "some thinking" about his involvement with the team.
Going into today's game he said "basically we have played four games so far, we drew three, we lost one and this is the fifth game so we have to make a bigger effort on Sunday not only because we are playing at home but we have to look at this game as a must win to stabilise the points within the group".
Maxwell has bemoaned the lack of quality strikers in his team despite the presence of former national player Kendrie Quarrie, Kirk Wright and national Under-23 representative Gregory Tape.
Reno have scored just two goals so far this season and have been shut out in their past two outings.
Constant Spring have not done much better in goal-scoring department either but have nine points to show for their efforts and will be gunning to avenge last season's two losses to Reno. Last season Reno won 2-0 and 2-1.
Despite Spring's early success, Maxwell said he saw tape of their 1-0 loss to Village and thinks their system has not changed much over the past couple of years, "although they have brought in a few new players" and thinks that "with the same kind of effort that the team is putting in, I believe that we can come away with a win".
Spring's goalkeeper, Leighton Murray, has been in good form allowing one goal and saving two penalties in their win over Tivoli Gardens. If he reports in the same form, the Reno players will have a hard time finding the back of the net.
Veteran Fabian Watkins will lead the Constant Spring team while former Wadadah and Seba United striker Markino Gillings makes his return to western Jamaica as part of the Constant Spring team.
Despite what he terms as "sympathetic fans" who are not pressuring the team, Bryan Rose, manager of the Tivoli team, said they feel they must win today.
Rose said they are nowhere near satisfied with being in ninth place in the standings and will be hoping some luck will run their way against a Seba team coming off a heavy loss at Harbour View last Sunday.
The injury-plagued team will welcome two healthy bodies today in the form of former Arnett Gardens midfielder Fabian Davis and veteran defender Craig White but Rose pointed out they are still not up to full strength.
Steve Green, Chris Nicholas, Marco McDonald and new signee Ian Goodison, all former or present national players, are still out but the team, Rose said, would be gunning for full points.
"One point is not good enough, we are coming for a win, we are too far down in the table and to be in ninth place is totally uncomfortable," he said.
Seba United's coach, Everton Tomlinson, is preparing for a tough game against a team he believes will be desperate for a win after losing three straight.
Despite their 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Harbour View, Tomlinson insisted his team played well, at least for the first 45 minutes, but described the second half as "a total disaster (where) we gave up four soft goals".
Gaining one point from two road games is "not good enough for this team" he said but added that they had "assessed what went wrong" in that game and have taken steps to make amends.
The team is still coming together as a unit, Tomlinson said, and while they might still have some problems, he expects that they will improve with every game.
Seba will be without their most experienced striker, Jermaine Anderson, who has already accumulated three yellow cards and will sit out today's game.
Newcomer Kemar Mills who has scored three goals so far is expected to take up the slack along with Denton Vidal, Michael Thompson and Damion Williams.
Invaders have managed to score in every game they have played and their tally of five is the sixth highest in the league but they have only one point to show for it all.
It is their defence that has let them down - conceding nine goals, joint 'leaders' with Star Cosmos in that statistic and Rivoli will be licking their lips in anticipation of putting a few more past the Invaders' goalkeeper.
TODAY'S GAMES
(Home teams listed first)
Waterhouse vs. Star Cosmos
Arnett Gardens vs. Village United
Seba United vs. Tivoli Gardens
Reno vs. Constant Spring
Portmore United vs. Harbour View
Invaders vs. Rivoli United
All games start at 3:30 except the
Arnett-Village clash which begins at 5:30.
