Tough Clarendon trip for H View’s Cephas

When coach Howard Cephas leads Harbour View into the Wembley Centre of Excellence to take on the home team, Vere United, it will be like a homecoming.

However, the man who grew up in Harbour View and made his name for Vere Technical will not be expecting a welcoming party, despite having scores of relatives in Vere and Chapelton.

“Vere is my place. My mother is actually from Vere and I still have a lot of relatives there, and my father is also from Chapelton in Clarendon, so my roots are really in Clarendon, despite being born in Kingston,” Cephas said.

Although he brought the community pride as a schoolboy, helping Vere to lift the Ben Francis Cup, today, he hopes to break hearts and cause family heartache by leading his team to victory.

“Today should be a much better game. Yes, we have had our challenges and we recognise that there is work to be done, but this is a nice bunch of kids.

“They are responding well and we will deliver a much better performance,” promised Cephas, whose team suffered an embarrassing 7-0 loss to Waterhouse before losing at home to Portmore United in their last game.

For Vere United, this is a game of immense importance.

“This game is of extreme importance to us as we need to get back to winning ways. We want to get back up the table and build from there,” said club president Lothan Cousins.

Success, Cousins said, means a great deal to their club and their army of fans.

“Our fans have become acclimatised to us winning and playing attractive football, and we want to give them that. They are very important to us.

“We believe that we have one of the largest fan bases in the league. It is very important to us that we keep them happy. It was with the fans in mind that we made the decision to part with the previous coach, Michael Bennett,” added Cousins who indicated that Dwight Smith is the new coach and his assistant Paul Surgeon.

Sitting in 10th place on the 12-team table, Cousins said his team has struggled due to “a number of injuries to key players as well as a number of questionable decisions from the previous coaching staff”.

Today, he will be counting on Christopher Randall, Zane Reid, who won the daCosta Cup with both Glenmuir and Clarendon College, and who recently returned home from studies in the United States, as well as Jahshane Campbell and youngster Anje Gayle.

Harbour View, on the other hand, will be relying on the experience of Nicholas Beckett and Luca Levee to take them home.

At Drax Hall, Arnett Gardens will be hoping to upset the cash-rich and talent-deep Mount Pleasant, while Molynes United will be aiming to keep their position on top of the table.

Portmore United collected their first points of the season last week, and will be looking to improve their points count and hand Humble Lion their first loss of the season.

Today’s games

- 3:30 p.m.: Dunbeholden vs Molynes United – Royal Lakes Complex

- 4:00 p.m.: Mount Pleasant FA vs Arnett Gradens – Drax Hall Sports Complex

- 3:30 p.m.: Portmore United vs Humble Lion – Spanish Town Prison Oval

- 3:30 p.m.: Vere United vs Harbour View – Wembley Centre of Excellence

Tomorrow’s game

- 8:30 p.m.: Cavalier vs UWI FC – Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex

POINTS STANDING

Teams P W D L GF GA GD Pts

Molynes FC 4 4 0 0 9 3 6 12

Waterhouse 4 3 1 0 10 0 10 10

H. Lion 4 1 3 0 5 3 2 6

Dunbeholden 4 2 0 2 4 4 0 6

H.View 4 2 0 2 6 0 -4 6

UWIFC 4 1 2 1 6 3 3 5

Mt. Pleasant 4 1 2 1 3 3 0 5

Cavalier 4 1 1 2 4 7 -3 4

Arnett 4 1 1 2 3 5 -2 4

Vere United 4 1 0 3 2 5 -3 3

Portmore 4 1 0 3 2 7 -5 3

Tivoli 4 1 0 3 2 6 -4 3