TOLL GATE, Clarendon — Sporting Central Academy coach Nigel Stewart reckons today's Red Stripe Premier League game against Waterhouse should be a good early test to measure his side's championship mettle.

Sporting have been pretty impressive in their first five games, tallying three wins, one draw and a loss to sit among the top three in the 12-team standing on 10 points.

The Clarendon side are also the best defensive team, having conceded a league low two goals, and Stewart is hoping his team will maintain that form when they host Waterhouse at Brancourt at 3:30 pm.

"Portmore (United), Harbour View, Arnett (Gardens), and Waterhouse; these are teams that we will have to beat if we want to win the title, so yes, this could be (the game to measure our progress)," Stewart told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

"Waterhouse is a good team but we are playing at home so the aim is to get three points or a result that's in our favour," he added.

Offensively, Sporting have not been in the best of form despite continuing to create goalscoring chances at will. They have netted five times in five outings, but failed to find the target in the two games that they dropped points.

However, against Waterhouse, who have earned just five points from a possible 15, Stewart is targeting an improved display from his strikers.

He said: "At the moment, we are really working on not giving up goals then try to score as many as we can because it's simple: if you concede (fewer) goals than your opponents there's no way you can lose the game.

"But, it's very important that we start scoring more goals," Stewart added. "We started out by averaging two goals per game in the first two matches, but lost that momentum. We are still creating lots of chances, but sometimes it's just a lack of confidence or poor decision making why we don't score more goals."

In today's other game, Arnett Gardens host Cavalier at the Anthony Spaulding Complex at 6:00 pm.