HUMBLE Lion coach Donovan Duckie reckons his players will have to be at their best if they are to record back-to-back victories over Red Stripe Premier League leaders Arnett Gardens.

The sides clash in a crucial third-round fixture at the Effortville Community Centre tonight, starting at 8:30, with Humble Lion (41 points) looking to retain fourth spot and Arnett Gardens (52) hoping to consolidate their position at the summit.

But Duckie believes repeating their 2-1 victory over the leaders, secured at the same venue on February 8, will take great focus.

“Arnett is a quality team,” said Duckie. “They boost probably the deepest squad in the league, and they would have learned from that defeat, therefore we have to be much better this time.

“Like us, they are coming for three points, so we can’t necessarily do the same thing that we did. In a sense, it will be more mental for us. We have to be very focused.”

Since that defeat in central Clarendon, which snapped Arnett’s 11-game unbeaten streak, the ‘Junglists’ have dropped five of another possible 12 points, while Humble Lion have dropped three in the same time frame. And Duckie thinks the form of both teams could possibly see the game being decided by individual talent.

“We are basically the two top teams in the league since the second round, so this is shaping out to be a really big game,” he said. “And I think it is the quality of the players on display that will eventually separate the teams.”

He also noted that the winning habit developed by his team over the past 14 games has restored the players’ belief in their own abilities.

“We are a confident bunch,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “We don’t harbour thoughts of losing, because in this game there are only three things that can happen: win, draw or lose. Whatever happens you move on to the next game. But we strive to be perfectionists all the time.”