Waterhouse, Cavalier look to close out JPL semis

Waterhouse and Cavalier SC enter today's second leg of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) semi-finals defending one goal leads from their first leg and both teams will be looking to keep out their rivals and guarantee an all Kingston and St Andrew final.

Waterhouse will face Mount Pleasant in the first game of the double-header at noon with the former leading 1-0 on aggregate, while Cavalier will battle Tivoli Gardens at 2:30 p.m also with a 1-0 lead from the first leg last Saturday. Both second legs will be played at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence.

Mount Pleasant are hoping that they will fare better in their second play-off appearance in three years than in their first in the 2018-2019 season when they also had a one goal deficit after the first leg but would come up short against eventual champions Portmore United. Interim head coach Walter Downes said that they will be looking to push Waterhouse to the limit if it comes to that given the likelihood of hot conditions at kick-off

"It will have a bearing because it's hot and I think the turf affects the players a little bit more but it's the same for both sides," Downes said. "So if we have to push them and push them so they are fatigued then that's what we will do and I am sure that they will be doing the same to us."

Waterhouse assistant coach Damion Gordon says that despite the lead they will still have to be vigilant against a Mount Pleasant team that had opportunities to hurt them on Saturday.

"It is a slim (advantage). They gave everything (in the first leg) and they have been doing it for some time now. But we do have another leg so we have to concentrate on that," Gordon said.

Meanwhile, Tivoli will have to overturn their one goal deficit without their starting goalkeeper Kewong Watkins who was red carded after the first leg for unsportsmanlike conduct. But it is the attack that head coach Phillip Williams says that will have to deliver.

"That has been plaguing us all season. We have been up and down. We have some games that we score a good amount and other games that we failed to create enough chances. That is an area that we have to work on for the second leg," Williams said.

Cavalier's Jeovanni Laing, who picked up man of the match for his first leg performance, said that his work during the last year's hiatus from football is showing benefits in the post season.

"From last year around this time, I have been training non-stop and the work is now paying off. I'm elated to be one foot in the final," Laing said. However, he says that they will approach the second leg with the same determined mentality to finish the job against Tivoli Gardens.