ARNETT Gardens and Humble Lion will clash in the first leg of their Red Stripe Premier League semi-final at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Sunday starting at 6:00 pm.

The Jerome Waite-coached Arnett Gardens have won the title on three occasions in 1978, 2001 and 2002, and are favoured to make this win number four in their 38-year history.

But before the “Junglists” can achieve that, they will have to get past a Donovan Duckie-coached Humble Lion team hungry for success and eager to write their own piece of history, having been around in Clarendon for 41 years.

Both teams will be looking to seize the advantage from the first leg, possibly setting the stage for another epic battle in what will be their fourth meeting of the season, in which they both shared 2-1 victories with the third game ending in a 1-1 stalemate.

Arnett Gardens are on a high having topped the preliminary round as champions and pocketed a whopping $1 million bonus.

They have rattled up an impressive 69 points from 33 games, inclusive of 21 wins, six draws and six defeats, and have scored the most goals of 60, while conceding 36 times.

Humble Lion, on the other hand, had to fight hard to make the semi-final play-offs after finishing with 53 points, inclusive of 15 wins, eight draws and 10 defeats. They banged in 40 goals, while conceding 25 times.

But despite finishing 16 points adrift of Arnett Gardens, Humble Lion will start level today in what is expected to be a humdinger of a match.

Arnett Gardens have showed a lot of depth all season and finished the preliminary round with a bang winning five of their last six games despite resting several senior players.

They have developed that winning mentality and, with a cadre of quality players to choose from, coach Waite has that selection problem that every coach loves to have.

Leon Strickland with 10 goals is their top scorer, and after some niggling injuries, he is back to once again lead from the front.

Andre Clennon, Alanzo Adlam and Andrew Phang all bagged five goals with veteran Kevin ‘Pele’ Wilson, Marvin Morgan and Jaron Richards all sitting on four goals apiece. Defender Dicoy Williams and Michaelos Martin have netted three goals each, an indication of the depth in Arnett’s arsenal.

Humble Lion will look to top-scorer Francois Swaby with 10 goals to his name and the dangerous Devon Hodges, who has scored seven goals to date. The wily Kemeel Wolfe and Jermaine Christian both are sitting on six goals apiece.

The advantage and momentum, however, would appear to be with Arnett Gardens, but not for one minute can anyone take Humble Lion for granted, especially with former national players Devon Hodges, Wolry Wolfe, Andrew Vanzie and Ricardo Cousins pulling the strings.

Arnett Gardens, too, have some former national players in Wilson, Oneil Thompson and Dicoy Williams to partner with some national fringe players in Renae Lloyd, Marvin Morgan, Jameel Thompson and Andre Clennon.

But it may be the talented bunch of Arnett youngsters — Vishunul Harris, Andrew Phang and Jason Moore — who may make the difference today and onwards.