THE third round of matches in the Digicel Premier League gets under way this afternoon with a full slate and title aspirants looking to distinquish themselves entering the final phase of the competition.

Today’s matches are Harbour View vs Sporting Central at Harbour View at 6:30 pm; Waterhouse vs Rivoli United at Prison Oval at 4:00; Tivoli vs Humble Lions at Seaga Complex at 5:00; St George’s vs Arnett Gardens at Tony Spaulding Complex at 6:00; Village United vs Boys’ Town at Jarrett Park at 7:00 and August Town vs Portmore United at UWI Bowl at 3:00.

Leaders Harbour View will look to the get off the mark against their bogey team Sporting Central.

The Clarendon team twice held the second End-of-Round champion this season and after an impressive second round, where they only lost once with six draws, should fancy their chance despite playing away.

Harbour View’s coach Donovan Hayles acknowledges his team’s inability to get the better of Sporting this season, but believes a win over their nemesis would signal their intent for the DPL title.

“It’s very important to get off the mark against them at home, so we’re going to have to approach this game in a very serious manner. But we have assessed the Sporting team and we hope we can make the neccesary corrections,” Hayles said.

He cited the Sporting midfield as their main obstacle and feels if they can dominate that area they stand a chance of getting full points.

“They have some young energetic players, so we will have to close them down in midfield and take control to win the game,” he added.

Hayles said after a good first round, they stepped up in the second and now he wants his team to improve beyond this display.

“We had a good run in the first round and an even better one in the second round, so we have to look to step up another gear so we can push further ahead, because this will be the decisive round,” he said.

The Geoffrey Maxwell-coached Waterhouse shrugged off probably the poorest start in the league to make the recent round final.

But despite not walking away with the top prize, Maxwell says his team remains in good spirits and although Rivoli is a daunting opponent, insists they are going for nothing but three points.

“We want to continue our momentum, having done so well to recover from the early bad start we had. This game against Rivoli will be another testing game for us,” Maxwell said.

The astute tactician said they have earmarked Rivoli as one of four teams that can make or break their title hopes in this round, but is confident three point is within their grasp.

“If we play the way we have performed we can go to Spanish Town and give a good account of ourselves,” he said.

“We want to win and we’re going there with the intention of securing three points, but football is a cruel game as was shown in the End-of-Round final, but we’re hoping to take three points,” he added.

Meanwhile Tivoli Gardens, who left everyone in their wake in the first round, were far from the team that captivated in the opening round.

Coach Lenworth Hyde believes his players were a bit exhausted, but look like they have recuperated. He pointed to the injury of Roland Dean as one reason for the possible dip in form.

“We have a rigid pre-season… so second-round fatigue sets in and the performance drops,” he explained. “But we have not lost games and now the players look refreshed and I think it’s time for them again,” he added.

“… Roland Dean is still out for two, three months now and we can’t seem to get him better. He gave us 19 goals last season and we need his goals now,” he said.

He noted, however that young Owen Powell and Dane Kelly have done well to fill the gap left by the national representative.

But Hyde expects nothing less than a victory against Humble Lions today to kick-start this round.

“We have some quality players and if we get going, and we should, we can get there (to the title) again this season, but it’s important that we start with a win,” he said.

At UWI Bowl, August Town, who showed much improvement under Paul Young for the second round, will open their account against the struggling Portmore United who will be under the guidance of Neville ‘Bertis’ Bell for the first time.

A lot will be expected of the highly-rated youth coach who replaced Linval Dixon, who resigned last week following a string of poor results.