Nigel Si­mon

Ti­tle-hold­ers Cli­co San Juan Jabloteh and tre­ble-chas­ing bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic meet in what is ex­pect­ed to be a grudge fi­nal of the fifth Toy­ota Clas­sic at Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya, from 8 pm tonight. The win­ners will col­lect $25,000 and the Toy­ota Clas­sic ti­tle while the run­ners-up will get $10,000. Two hours ear­li­er, a Toy­ota XI will bat­tle the Pro League coach­es in an ex­hi­bi­tion match. Two years ago both clubs al­so met in the fi­nal at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo where Joe Pub­lic pre­vailed 2-1 in an ill-tem­pered match.

Joe Pub­lic's first year coach Derek King who has led his team to Pro League and Big Six crowns said he was very con­fi­dent of adding an­oth­er ti­tle to his team cof­fers. Joe Pub­lic won their last meet­ing, a Big Six en­counter 3-1, and al­so had a 4-0 league win with ex-Jabloteh mid­field­er Ker­ry Bap­tiste scor­ing dou­bles in both wins. The oth­er league match end­ed a 0-0. Asked if he was wor­ried by the re­cent lack of goals from Bap­tiste, King said he was not a bit con­cerned.

Jabloteh which is al­so un­der first-year coach, St Lu­cian Earl Jean, will be play­ing in its third straight Toy­ota fi­nal but is still seek­ing a first ti­tle this sea­son af­ter re­lin­quish­ing the Pro League and Big Six ti­tles to tonight's op­po­nents.

De­spite play­ing sec­ond fid­dle to Joe Pub­lic for most of the sea­son Jean is al­so con­fi­dent that his play­ers can rise to the chal­lenge and re­tain the ti­tle. Tonight, Jean will hope that in­form Noel Williams and Mar­vin Oliv­er, with four goals each in the com­pe­ti­tion, con­tin­ue their good form in front of goal as they try and end the team's win­less drought against Joe Pub­lic this sea­son. Jabloteh booked its place in the ti­tle match af­ter hold­ing on for 4-3 win over St Ann's Rangers while Joe Pub­lic got the bet­ter of Ma Pau 3-2 on penal­ty-kicks af­ter a 1-1 draw at the end of reg­u­la­tion-time.