Rivoli's Devon Hodges and Portmore United’s Kevin Deer

FRESH from their end-of-round final success over Boys' Town, defending champions and leaders Portmore United are highly fancied to make a winning start to the third round when they host fellow St Catherine team Rivoli FC in today's Digicel Premier League night game.

The fixture, slated for a 7 p.m. kick-off at Ferdie Neita Park, numbers on a full slate of matches that includes a spotlight contest at Drewsland Mini Stadium between Waterhouse and St Georges Sports Club and Boys' Town tackling Arnett Gardens in a Trench Town derby at the bottom end of Collie Smith Drive.

Equally important is a 6:30 game at Harbour View Mini Stadium where the hosts, two points off the leaders, tackle Trelawny's Village United, which they have beaten twice this season.

Boys' Town also lead their area derby 2-0 this season with 1-0 wins in the respective home and away fixtures, quite similar to the Portmore United-Rivoli matchups that were both taken by the team from the Sunshine City.

taking nothing for granted

While they will be looking to light up the park with another winning display, having notched the fairly comfortable victory margins of 2-0 and 3-0 this season, Portmore won't be taking anything for granted against their parishioners, who have made noticeable successes since veteran coach Bradley Stewart took over the reins.

"This Rivoli team is improving and they've improved a lot, so we can't take them lightly and I know it's going to be a tough one," observed Linval Dixon, Portmore United's coach.

He added: "They have the top scorer, Devon Hodges, so we'll have to pay close attention to him. But we're ready to go out there and play. We really want to keep our lead, keep on doing well, keep on getting results because we all know everybody is close to us, they're coming for us but we know what we've to do."

The highest tallying team of the second round with 23 points, and 43 overall, Portmore beat Boys' Town 2-1 for the round final championship to avenge a defeat two rounds earlier that had snapped their 11-game unbeaten run.

Besides Harbour View, Tivoli Gardens and Boys' Town are breathing down their necks, only four points adrift.

As it has been all season, Portmore will be missing some of their top offensive players, with Roen Nelson, Wolry Wolfe and Eric Vernan seeking professional contracts in Europe and North America.

Midfielder Damian Williams and defender Tyrone Sawyers are also out, on cards, but they will have the services of a key player who has been affected by injury all season.

"Kevin Deerr is returning and he will play a major role in our setup going forward," noted Dixon, whose attacking force includes the dangerous Steven Morrissey and Anthony Bennett.

Besides Hodges, the Planter brothers - Derrick and Barrington - as well as Valentine Gardner have figured in the team's scoring and improved play since Stewart's arrival. They are expected to play a major role as the team looks to continue its climb away from the relegation zone.

One team that's really counting on that is Harbour View, also facing a team on the rise as relegation-threatened Village have won once and drawn four times in their past five encounters. Harbour View, who beat Village 4-0 and 2-1, have dipped with a loss and four draws in their past five matches.

"We're entering the third round and we want to enter with a big move," stressed the Stars of the East's assistant coach Donovan 'DV' Hayles, whose team welcomes the return of high scoring midfielder Lovel Palmer, who was on trial in Norway.

"As a coaching staff, we're quite satisfied with our physical condition and the way we're playing. Our area of concern, which we've been working on, is the finishing. We're really looking for the attackers to show improvement in that area," he added.

on the bubble

Waterhouse are also on the bubble, winning twice and drawing as many times (against Portmore and Harbour View) in their past four fixtures. And one of those victories included a 6-2 howler over Boys' Town.

This purple patch has coincided with the coming of coach Paul Young, whose thoughts are fixed on maximising points from the 'big game' against the fifth-place Portland team, who they are looking to collar in the standings.

"It's a very big game, it's a very important game," Young pointed out. "They're ahead of us in the standings so the onus is for us to win.

"The onus is on us to defend the home-field advantage and ensure that every match we play at home we get a winning result," he reiterated. "It's going to be a tough game but that's what this league is all about."

Jermaine Anderson and Kevin Lamey have led their goal count and the latter, according to Young, has helped in transforming their fortunes with his mature contribution off the field.

"The respect from the players has been exemplary, the discipline has been exceptional and the senior players, Irvino English, Kevin Lamey and Marco McDonald, are taking responsibility and leading from the front," said Young. "Once the other players see these people leading, they've fallen in line and so far, so good."

St Georges' form shows three losses and a draw, along with one win in their last five, but Drewsland is a special place for Geoffrey Maxwell and the former Waterhouse coach will no doubt be looking to pick off a decent result with his fifth-place team whose hard-kicking, scoring midfielder, Daniel Shaw can make a difference. The Portland team also holds the upper hand in this match-up, with a win and a draw this season.

Boys' Town have taken the maximum off their neighbours twice. They have added Robert Scott and Kemar Petrekin recently, and technical director Andrew Price says he will add Walter Boyd to that list, as the striker makes his return after a near three-year hiatus against the team with which he won two premier league titles.

Besides the end-of-round final, Boys' Town have lost twice, won once and drawn once in their past four matches.

Arnett, on the other hand, have won three times and drawn twice in their past five matches, but their player-coach Fabian Davis hopes they can shake off their seasonal bugbear to change their fortunes in this area derby.

"We've been playing good football but it's just for us to realise and understand that we can't win if we don't put the ball in the back of the net. That's been our downfall," he said.

Leaders Portmore host Rivoli at 7 p.m.

Today's matches

Sporting Central Academy vs Reno FC at Brancourt at 3:30 p.m.

Boys' Town vs Arnett Gardens at Collie Smith Drive at 3:30 p.m.

Waterhouse vs St Georges at Drewsland Mini Stadium at 4 p.m. (TV Game)

Tivoli Gardens vs Meadhaven at Edward Seaga Sports Complex at 5 p.m.

Harbour View vs Village United at Harbour View Mini Stadium at 6 p.m.

Portmore United vs Rivoli FC at Ferdie Neita Park at 7 p.m.