Cen­tral FC goal­keep­er Jan-Michael Williams says he is anx­ious for his team to add the Dig­i­cel Char­i­ty Shield to its cof­fers, when the 2015/2016 sea­son of the T&T Pro League kicks off to­mor­row with a clash ver­sus Cou­va-ri­vals, Di­recTV W Con­nec­tion at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va from 7pm.

The Dig­i­cel Char­i­ty Shield is one of three do­mes­tic tro­phies to have ever es­caped the reign­ing Dig­i­cel Pro League and Caribbean cham­pi­ons Cen­tral FC, the oth­ers be­ing the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion FA Tro­phy and Toy­ota Clas­sic.

Now the "Cou­va Sharks", head­ing in­to on­ly their fourth sea­son of ex­is­tence, aim to low­er that sta­tis­tic to­mor­row when they meet three-time (2012, 2013 & 2014) Char­i­ty Shield hold­ers W Con­nec­tion.

Speak­ing ahead of to­mor­row's en­counter against his for­mer em­ploy­ers, Williams, who was one of the key play­ers for the sev­en-ti­tle-win­ning Cen­tral last sea­son said, "We haven't won the Char­i­ty Shield yet as a team, so it's key for us in get­ting our hands on it."

The Dig­i­cel Char­i­ty Shield, which be­gan three sea­sons ago, serves as the cur­tain rais­er for the new Pro League cal­en­dar and pits the win­ners of the Dig­i­cel Pro League and the win­ners of the Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl.

But both com­pe­ti­tions were won by Cen­tral hence W Con­nec­tion, the league run­ners-up, pro­vide the op­po­nents and a re­peat of the 2014 edi­tion. The win­ning team will re­ceive $100,000 to be do­nat­ed to a char­i­ta­ble cause of choice.

W Con­nec­tion won the in­au­gur­al Dig­i­cel Char­i­ty Shield with a 2-0 re­sult over De­fence Force in 2012 thanks to some goal­keep­ing hero­ics of Williams, the on­ly goal­keep­er to win a Pro League Play­er of the Year award. But by March 2013, the for­mer Eu­rope-based goal­keep­er was forced to part ways with the "Savonet­ta Boys" in a de­ci­sion which stemmed from a ver­bal clash with coach Stu­art Charles Fevri­er two months ear­li­er.

W Con­nec­tion, how­ev­er, went on to the Char­i­ty Shield in 2013 with a 4-2 win over De­fence Force, who were again coached by Ross Rus­sell.

The "Savonet­ta Boys" as W Con­nec­tion com­plet­ed a hat trick of the Char­i­ty Shield in 2014 by edg­ing Cen­tral, the club of goal­keep­er Williams, 1-0 to re­tain the ti­tle but failed to de­feat the "Cou­va Sharks" a sec­ond time for the re­main­der of the 2014/2015 sea­son.

Cen­tral held W Con­nec­tion to a 1-1 draw in Round One of the Dig­i­cel Pro League (DPL), then edged the "Savonet­ta Boys" 1-0 in Round Two be­fore both teams played to a 0-0 draw in Round Three.

Cen­tral went on to win the Pro League crown, which was pre­vi­ous­ly held by W Con­nec­tion, who had to set­tle for the sec­ond place fin­ish. Then Cen­tral had the fi­nal say last sea­son by de­feat­ing W Con­nec­tion in the crown­ing match of the Caribbean Foot­ball Union (CFU) Club Cham­pi­onship 2015.

Al­so in 2014/2015, Cen­tral won the First Cit­i­zens Cup and the in­au­gur­al Rawle Fletch­er, Akeem Adams and Kevon Carter tro­phies for each round of the DPL, to oc­cu­py a cab­i­net which al­so boasts the 2013 First Cit­i­zens Cup and 2014 Lu­cozade Sport Goal Shield.

With a sea­son as il­lus­tri­ous as the pre­vi­ous, the 30-year-old Williams ad­mits it won't be an easy up­com­ing 2015/2016 sea­son for Cen­tral but holds con­fi­dence in his team­mates and re­cent­ly in­stalled head coach Ross Rus­sell.

Re­fer­ring to the stut­ter start this sea­son by reign­ing cham­pi­ons Chelsea FC in the Eng­lish Pre­mier League, Williams said, "They (Chelsea) flew through the Pre­mier League last sea­son and if you look now it shows that every sea­son is dif­fer­ent.

"Cham­pi­ons are al­ways un­der pres­sure, re­gard­less of who we play, be­cause we want to keep on top. But be­gin­ning on Fri­day, it would be the start of some­thing ex­cit­ing and new for all of us at Cen­tral."