Western teams face uphill tasks for play-offs

With FC Reno and 2016 champions Montego Bay United (MBU) both suffering defeats on Sunday, things are looking gloomy for the west.

Both teams sit outside the sixteam play-off zone and may need a helping hand if they are to go forward in the regular season of the Red Stripe Premier League.

Vassell Reynolds, technical director of Reno, which suffered a 2-0 defeat to Harbour View FC at home, told WESTERN STAR that his team would be fighting to make the play-offs. Only two rounds of matches are left in the regular season. Reno’s next game will be against sixth-place team Cavalier on Sunday at Stadium East.

“We still have some amount of motivation even though it’s minute. There is still a mathematical chance, as you all know, so there is still something to play for. That’s the little hope we are clinging to, to give it one last push on Sunday,” said Reynolds.

MBU, who went down 2-1 to Waterhouse FC at the Drewland Stadium, slipped into eighth place with 41 points, two more than Reno, and will be looking to bounce back on Sunday when they host runaway leaders Portmore United, which is the only team to already qualify for the play-offs.

Chief operating officer at MBU Sandra Christie said that the team is determined to make the play-offs despite it now becoming harder as they still believe in their ambitions of winning the league.

“We know that it’s a harder challenge, however, the players are still pretty much determined to try and make it. We have to make the most of it,” said Christie.