A Waterhouse team, dogged by rumours of the imminent departure of their coach Baris Johnson, must put field distractions behind them when they face familiar rivals Tivoli Gardens in the Digicel Premier League (DPL) end-of-first-round final at the National Stadium at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

Despite leading the club to the top of the DPL, Johnson is rumoured to be dissatisfied with the current situation at the club and severed ties earlier this week. The club's management team have, however, denied the split.

A far cry from a shaky start last season, which saw them lose their first five games, Waterhouse have been excellent so far: winning 8 games, losing two and drawing 3. With their only two losses coming away to Village and Boys' Town, the Drewsland team have already got the better of Tivoli the only time the teams have met. Jermaine Anderson's late header proved the difference on that occasion as Waterhouse emerged 1-0 winners at home.

A major boost for the Drewsland team has been the play of Vincent Earle who bagged a hat-trick against struggling St Georges. However, in addition to Earle, who is the team's top scorer with six goals, the Drewsland team have been quite efficient in front of goal so far this season, scoring a league-high 17 times.

Having scored only one goal less, Tivoli have been no slouches themselves. However, the west Kingston team will be without their joint top scorer Navion Boyd who is out for six weeks with a shoulder injury. They will, however, be breathing a sigh of relief as Devon Hodges, the team's other top scorer with three, has recovered from his injury setback to take part in Sunday's clash.

"Navion is one of our key players, he will be missed; but we have plenty of quality up front in this team and I am sure the guys are ready to step up," said Tivoli coach Alvin Shaw.

"We are looking forward to it. We have been preparing specifically for the game all week and we are ready."