Nigel Si­mon

For­mer cham­pi­on, W Con­nec­tion will be hop­ing to slow the march of De­fence Force to its first Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League ti­tle in 11 years when both teams meet in a key sec­ond round match to­day from 6 pm. This as the league re­sumes, fol­low­ing a two-week break for the Dig­i­cel Caribbean Cup Fi­nals which end­ed in Mar­tinique on Sun­day.

The meet­ing be­tween, ta­ble lead­ers, De­fence Force and W Con­nec­tion, one of five match­es on to­day, takes place at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va. Coach Ross Rus­sell and his De­fence Force squad lead the ten-team league ta­ble with max­i­mum 30 points from ten match­es and is com­ing off a 7–1 whip­ping of Damarie Hill Re­unit­ed in the FA round-of-16 eight days ago.

On the oth­er hand, W Con­nec­tion is joint third on the ta­ble with 15 points, the same as Cale­do­nia AIA and while its coach, St Lu­cian Stu­art Charles-Fevri­er, still has dreams of se­cur­ing the league crown, de­feat to­day will put an end to those as­pi­ra­tions.

When both teams met in the first round, De­fence Force came away with a 2–1 win and a sim­i­lar out­come to­day will no doubt en­hance the "Teteron Boys" ti­tle cre­den­tials with sev­en match­es left to play. Up at the Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya, de­fend­ing cham­pi­on and sec­ond place on the ta­ble bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic (19 points) and an­oth­er for­mer league win­ner, San Juan Jabloteh face off for the sec­ond time in five days from 8 pm.

On­ly on Fri­day night, Jabloteh got goals in ex­tra-time from Jer­rel Brit­to and Ja­son Mar­cano to blank Joe Pub­lic 2–0 in their T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion FA Tro­phy round-of-16 match at the same venue while they drew 1–1 in their first round league clash.

How­ev­er, with match­es run­ning out to catch De­fence Force, coach Derek King and his East­ern Li­ons need a re­ver­sal of for­tunes against Ter­ry Fen­wick's men, who are joint sixth on the stand­ings with 13 points and lit­tle chance of be­ing crowned league cham­pi­ons. Two hours ear­li­er at Ma­coya, Ma Pau, an­oth­er team in the hunt for the run­ner-up spot which will se­cure a berth in the Caribbean Foot­ball Union Club Cham­pi­onship se­ries, will be out to se­cure max­i­mum points against fel­low FA tro­phy quar­ter­fi­nal qual­i­fiers.

Both teams played to a 0–0 draw in their first round en­counter, but will go in to tonight's meet­ing full of con­fi­dence af­ter com­fort­able FA wins last week. Ma Pau blanked 1st FC San­ta Rosa 3–0 and Rangers dumped Va­len­cia Li­ons Youths 5–1. FC South End en­ter­tains Cale­do­nia, the lat­ter com­ing off a 2–1 ex­tra-time FA win over De­fence Force, at Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, while Di­recTV North East Stars tack­les Po­lice at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar.

STAND­INGS

Teams P W D L F A Pts

D/Force 10 10 0 0 27 8 30

Joe Pub­lic 10 5 4 1 17 11 19

W Con­nec­tion 10 4 3 3 14 9 15

Cale­do­nia 10 4 3 3 12 10 15

Ma Pau 10 3 5 2 13 9 14

Jabloteh 10 3 4 3 11 7 13

NE Stars 10 3 4 3 14 13 13

Rangers 10 2 3 5 11 20 9

Po­lice 10 1 2 7 11 27 5

South End 10 1 0 9 7 23 3

FIX­TURES

Ma Pau vs Rangers, Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya, 6 pm,

Joe Pub­lic vs Jabloteh, Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya, 8 pm.

South End vs Cale­do­nia, Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, 6 pm,

D/Force vs W Con­nec­tion, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, 6 pm,

N/East Stars vs Po­lice, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, 6 pm.