We must take three points – Price - Humble Lion target three points as ‘Junglists’ visit Effortville

Head coach Andrew Price is hoping to make the most of home field advantage when his third-place Humble Lion team welcome fourth place Arnett Gardens to Effortville today in their Red Stripe Premier League face-off at 5 p.m.

Humble Lion, Arnett Gardens and fifth place defending champions Portmore United are all locked on 30 points and are separated only by goal difference but Price made it clear that his team must push for all three points and ensure that the visitors leave Clarendon empty-handed.

“Yes, definitely (looking to consolidate third place), especially when you are playing at home. We must press home the initiative. They are on the same amount of points as us and we need to keep them behind, so it’s imperative that we win the game and keep them behind,” Price said.

“They will be coming for a win. We beat them in the first game in the season, so they are going to be highly motivated coming into Effortville, but we will carry the game to them and try to push them back very early and keep them under pressure. They are a quality team, with good players and if you allow them to play, they will hurt you. So we will try to put them under pressure early and make an early impression on the game,” Price added.

Arnett Gardens were on a five match unbeaten run before they were brought back to down to Earth by Dunbeholden, who defeated them 3-0 in their last match.

However, Price, whose team has not lost in six games, is confident they can get the better of their rivals.

QUALITY TEAM

“They are a quality team with players who have won the Premier League, so you have to give them credit as they will give you a lot of trouble if you allow them to play. But for us, it’s about consistency, we want to see if we can get a couple victories on the trot, as we have been getting some clean sheets and we want to continue, plus we are scoring at least one goal per game.

“Captain Dennis Taylor has led the team well from behind. Andre Clennon has been a mountain as the lone striker, Rohan Richard, Renae Lloyd, Andrew Vanzie have shown their experience in midfield, so we expect nothing less than a positive result, especially at home,” Price added.

Meanwhile, Arnett Gardens head coach, Alex Thomas, is expecting a difficult game but says they are determined to get something from the encounter.

“Both (teams) of us are on the same points, so the objective is to go there (Effortville) and if we can’t get the victory, we take a point. We lost to Dunbeholden at home (last game), but we took it on a positive note, we accepted it, put that behind us and prepared for Humble Lion,” Thomas shared.

“They beat us in the first game of the season but this is going to be a totally different match. It will be a physical battle but we are ready and if we can’t get three points we will take a point,” he added.