Tivoli aim to add W’house to string of wins
Tivoli Gardens defeated Cavalier 3-2 in their Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) match on Monday night to register their third successive win of the season and when the west Kingston team go up against leaders Waterhouse in a reschedule game at the Edward Seaga Complex tomorrow, coach, Philip Williams says the aim is to make it four wins from four games and continue their climb up the table.
However, Williams expects a much tougher contest from Waterhouse than they encountered against Dunbeholden, Molynes and Cavalier. However, he believes that a win against the league leaders would send a strong message to the rest of the league.
“Waterhouse are a different kettle of fish, in terms of how they play and the quality they have. It’s going to be rough but we are playing at home and we want to win our home games, so we are looking to make our home advantage count.
“Putting one on Waterhouse would go a far way in sending message to the rest of the Premier League. However, we are not really concentrating on sending messages, we are concentrating on getting ourselves from where we are in the table and winning against Waterhouse will move us from where we are at and we are going to try to do that. We are at home and we need three points, so no matter who we play we want three points and we are going for it when we meet Waterhouse,” he said.
Waterhouse won the first meeting between the team, but recent results have lifted the confidence of the Tivoli Gardens camp and Williams says getting away from relegation and securing a top six place is now their focus.
“This run of results means a lot, it’s a very big boost but we still have to keep ourselves grounded, as the repairing job has just started and there is a long way to go in order to get us competing where we should be.
“We had really dug ourselves in a hole and this is just to right the wrongs and try to get ourselves out of where we have put ourselves. So we now are looking in two directions. We are trying to get as much space between us and the relegation zone and we have one eye on the top six finish. So the run of form is a welcome one and we want to continue pushing as much as possible,” he continued.
Tivoli’s win over Cavalier pushed them one place up the standings to ninth with 21 points, one more than Molynes and five ahead of UWI and Vere in the relegation zone.
However, they sit just two points adrift of Harbour View in sixth place and with five games to go before the end of the first round, Williams believes they can put themselves in a strong play-off position by the end of the round.
“We have some games we have earmarked as winning games. We have some tough teams too. For us to move from where we are, we have to set ourselves goals and achieve them and we are looking at the play-off spots.
“The guys are working overtime to repair the early damage in the season and they are getting better and the results are coming our way now. But we have to take it game by game and see where it leads us,” he said.