Ryon Jones, Star Writer

League leaders Tivoli Gardens will seek to consolidate their position at the top of the Digicel Premier League standings when they play host to second end-of-round finalist, Sporting Central Academy, in a 5:00 p.m. encounter at the Edward Seaga Complex.

Tivoli, who finished runners-up last season to Harbour View, currently lead the standings by virtue of goal difference, as they are locked on 41 points with Portmore United.

The Alvin Shaw-coached team is coming off the back of a hard fought 3-2 away win over 10th place Benfica (25 points) in their opening third round fixture. They will be further buoyed by the fact that they have scored victories over their Clarendon rivals in two previous league meetings this season. The first was a 1-0 home win, which was followed by a 2-1 away triumph.

competitive match

Despite the two previous wins over their opponents earlier this season, Shaw anticipates a very competitive match.

"In my assessment of the first round in terms of all the teams we played, to me they (Sporting) were the most competitive," Shaw said.

"I know that they will be coming very hard at us but we will use the experience of our players.

"That is how we got the result the last time we played against them because they controlled approximately 60 per cent of the game, but we were able to come away with the win. Our thing is just to play an intelligent game and use our experience to keep them at bay," Shaw added.

consistent team

Sporting Central was one of the more consistent team in the preceding round, which saw them making their first ever senior final. They have, however, played to draws in their last three league outings, failing to get on the score sheet in two of these games. The latest was a nil-all draw against Waterhouse.

Sporting's coach Donovan Duckie will be trying to safeguard against conceding an early goal.

"Normally when we play against Tivoli and lose against them, we always conceded early so that always sets us back as we have to play from behind," Duckie said.

"We have to be very stable defensively and possess the ball a lot against them because they are a quality team and they are an attacking team," he added.

Sporting will be without the services of their captain and star player, Jevaughn Watson, who is off the island and defensive strongman David Boswell who has a thigh injury.