FIRST-TIME finalists Sporting Central Academy (SCA) believe their qualification for this evening’s Digicel Premier League (DPL) second End-of-Round final at Tony Spaulding Complex against Portmore United is a sign that their young team has matured since entering the league three seasons ago.

Assistant coach Nigel Stewart further believes victory in the 6:00 pm showpiece could be the spark needed to compete for the overall title.

The Clarendon outift held of challenges from Arnett Gardens and Harbour View on the final match day of the round to secure their berth and Stewart said the players have become more resolute and difficult to beat.

“Reaching this final signifies that the club is growing and that we’re getting more experienced. Our players have grown into big men now; they’re not the youngsters they used to be,” he said.

“… Reaching this final is going to boost them to challenge more for the title,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“They (Portmore) have beaten us twice (this season) and this is a team that has eluded us a lot of times by the odd goal, so… we want to play well and minimise the risk of them scoring and try to get a goal or two ourselves and win the game,” he added.

“Whenever we play Portmore it’s always a very good contest, and to be the best you have to play and beat the best, so we just have to go out and impose ourselves,” he declared.

SCA will be without influential captain Jevaughn Watson because of suspension. But Stewart says the team is used to coping without the midfield maestro and he expects nothing less from his side this evening.

“The team plays well with Jevaughn and plays well without him… For the latter part of the second round Jevaughn was in England, but he came back and he helped boost the team and continued where he left off… without him we still should not have a problem…” he said.

He said although they’ve often been criticised for their inconsistency, the players now understand what it takes to be a consistent team.

“We played well in the second round and we didn’t falter that much, so we’re really upbeat about playing in the final and I’m hoping they bring their best,” he said.

Meanwhile, Portmore’s coach Linval Dixon said making the final indicates that they’re a team back on top of their game.

The local giants hovered around the relegation zone for most of last season, but after a slow start to the first round this year, have improved rapidly and are now tied at the top of the overall standings with Tivoli Gardens.

Dixon believes they are on the way to getting back to their best, although they had to make some drastic decisions along the way.

“We’re slowly getting back to our best now… but we had to cut of some players for it to work… and now that we’ve started to invest more in the younger players it has paid dividends,” he said.

Dixon now hopes his team can win the round final and continue improving in the third round and make their way to the top.

“Even though we’re sitting at the top with Tivoli, we believe there’s a lot more work to be done, but we’re heading in the right direction and we hope to… continue the trend in the third round,” he said.

For today’s final, however, the former national defender says they will miss central defender Adrian Reid who is on suspension.

Reid is presently the club’s most senior player, but Dixon is confident they can pull through without him.

“We’ll miss his experience, but we expect players like Rafe Wolfe, who has done pretty well at the back, to really step up, so we’re confident we can go out and display good football and win the cup,” he added.

Dixon said although they have beaten Sporting twice in two meetings this season, he rates them as a most difficult opponent.

“When you play in a final that does not have any significance because you have to put out everything in a final and we’re expecting nothing less from them.

“We know they’re coming to fight real hard to win this trophy, but we’re going there to do the same and we know that once we play well we’ll improve the possibility of coming away with the trophy,” he added.