Downes ready for fan return - Mount Pleasant, Waterhouse in top-of-the-table clash

Interim Mount Pleasant head coach, Walter Downes, has not yet had first-hand experience of the atmosphere of a game at the Drax Hall Sports Complex. He will finally have the opportunity as the fans will make their return in a top-of-the-table clash fit for the occasion.

League leaders Mount Pleasant will face second-place Waterhouse at 3:15 p.m. in the headliner of tomorrow's Jamaica Premier League double-header. The games will make the first matchday in two years that fans will be allowed to see in person since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only fully vaccinated patrons will be allowed entry, with all matches this weekend being played at the venue.

Mount Pleasant are currently setting the pace and are in first position with 16 points, three ahead of Waterhouse, and Downes said that the fans' return will provide a boost for the team, giving them extra motivation to continue their unbeaten run.

"When it comes together everybody tells me it's (the fan atmosphere) magnificent. I've not witnessed it but they said when it's full it's rocking. And I am sure that the 1,300 people will make themselves well known to the players and hopefully, the game will do the fans justice," Downes told The Weekend Star.

Mount Pleasant is the only unbeaten team left in the league, with five wins and one draw. Although the early clash is a test of the two best teams in the league so far, Downes says that he is still maintaining focus on his team's performance and how they adapt to the natural surface after playing more than a season on the artificial surface of the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence.

"It's still very early in the season. We've had a good start, so has Waterhouse. But other teams seem to be getting into their rhythm now," Downes said. "What may be a little bit strange is going back on to the grass surface because the ball has been playing very true at UWI. We have made our pitch as good as we can make it."

On Sunday, Humble Lion will face Harbour View in the opening game of the double-header at 1 p.m, with the former hoping to get their first win of the season at the seventh time of asking. On that day also, Molynes United will play Tivoli Gardens at 1 p.m., while Portmore United will face Vere United at 3:15 p.m. Vere managed to get their first win after back-to-back defeats and head coach Donovan Duckie says that with the majority of their key players missing, they are looking to their youngsters to take charge.

"The expectation is very high (after last season). It's public knowledge that we have lost seven of our eight starters, so now we are turning to the youth," Duckie said. "So we are in a rebuilding phase, but the games are still much harder. But it is good for us. If we have to rebuild that way we are happy to do it."