With a top three spot as­sured at the end of Sun­day’s Match Day 18 pro­gramme, sec­ond-placed De­fence Force, and third-placed Tiger Tanks Club San­do will go in­to their re­spec­tive match­es to­day need­ing a win to join lead­ers AC Port-of-Spain as qual­i­fiers to the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Club Shield (two clubs) while the third-placed team will com­pete in the con­fed­er­a­tion’s low­er-lev­el tour­na­ment, the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Cup (one).

As it stands, AC Port-of-Spain leads the 12-club ta­ble with 45 points from 17 match­es, just two ahead of the in-form De­fence Force while Club San­do is next with 41 points, but can­not be caught by fourth-placed Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, who has 37 points.

This af­ter, AC PoS held off Cen­tral FC 3-2 on Thurs­day thanks to a Che Ben­ny strike while the Army/Coast-Guard com­bi­na­tion, un­beat­en since a 2-0 Match Day Six loss to Club San­do, one of on­ly two loss­es this sea­son, moved in­to sec­ond spot on the ta­ble ex­act­ing re­venge by a sim­i­lar 2-0 mar­gin against Club San­do, who slipped to third with the de­feat.

And boost­ed by the trans­fer of na­tion­al Un­der-20 winger Kai­him Thomas from Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, De­fence Force will be con­fi­dent of an­oth­er win to­day (Sun­day), against W Con­nec­tion at the same Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la from 4 pm to ce­ment their qual­i­fi­ca­tion as the sec­ond team to the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Club Shield com­pe­ti­tion, as well as stay in the hunt for the in­au­gur­al with five match­es left to play for each club.

Club San­do, on the oth­er hand, will be hop­ing for the ‘Savonet­ta Boys’ to pull off a shock win against the vis­it­ing De­fence Force while it tar­gets full points against a re­ju­ve­nat­ed Po­lice FC at the St James Po­lice Bar­racks Train­ing Ground, Long Cir­cu­lar Road, St James from 4 pm as well.

Lead­ers AC PoS will al­so be in­volved in an ear­ly kick­off ver­sus cel­lar-placed Cunu­pia FC at Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar while Rangers hosts Pris­ons Ser­vices at La Hor­quet­ta from 6 pm; Point Fortin Civic en­ter­tains Cen­tral FC at Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex, Point Fortin from 6 pm, and San Juan Jabloteh wel­comes Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA to the Ato Boldon Recre­ation Ground, Bourg Mu­la­tresse, San Juan from 4 pm.

(See page 62)

Sun­day's match­es

W Co­nenc­tion vs De­fence Force, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, 4 pm

Po­lice FC vs Club San­do, St James Po­lice Bar­racks Grd, St James, 4 pm

AC Port-of-Spain vs Cunu­pia FC, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, 4 pm

La Hor­quet­ta Rangers vs Pris­ons Ser­vice, La Hor­quet­ta Rec. Grd, La Hor­quet­ta, 6 pm

Point Fortin Civic vs Cen­tral FC, Ma­haica Sport­ing Com­plex, Point Fortin, 6 pm

San Juan Jabloteh vs Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA, Ato Boldon Rec. Grd, Bourg Mu­la­tresse, San Juan, 4 pm

Lat­est stand­ings

Place Team P W D L F A Pts

1* AC PoS*17*15*0*2*48*13*45

2*De­fence Force*17*14*1*2*40*11*43

3*Club San­do*17*13*2*2*36*16*41

4*L.H Rangers*17*12*1*4*52*24*37

5*Po­lice*17*9*1*7*35*29*28

6*Cen­tral FC*17* 8*1*8*30*33*25

7*W Con­nec­tion*17*5*4*8*17*23*19

8*Pt Fortin Civic*17*5*3*9*15*20*18

9*Mor­vant Cale­do­nia*17*3*2*12*17*43*11

10*Pris­ons Ser­vice*17*3*2*12*10*42*11

11*Jabloteh*17*2*3*12*19*39*9

12*Cunu­pia FC*17*2*2*13*10*36*8