DRAX HALL, St Ann – After coming up short in their maiden season in the Red Stripe Premier League last year, St Ann-based team Mount Pleasant Football Academy is expecting to “go one further” this year and will host former champions Harbour View at Drax Hall in their opening game of the season today.

Kick off is at 4:00 pm.

Mount Pleasant finished fourth last year, but Head Coach Donovan Duckie says his “more cohesive team” was ready to build on what they started last season.

“The players are ready to play football and we can’t wait to get the ball rolling,” Duckie told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

He said while Mount Pleasant FA had a big squad of almost 40 players last season, they had trimmed it to 27 for this season, while bringing in “about four new players who will help us to do what we set out to do”.

Most notable, he said, was the arrival of Jameil Hardware, a midfielder he had long sought, who is expected “to give balance to the attack”.

On the other hand, former Harbour View player Howard Cephas, who will be guiding a RSPL team for the first time, said the club has failed to sparkle for the past four seasons or so, but promised that the east Kingston outfit “will surprise many this year” with “attacking, attractive football”.

Cephas said clinical finishing is a problem in Jamaica’s football, but he intends to fix that at Harbour View, claiming as they “have been emphasising that part of the football”.

Last season, Harbour View scored a mere 33 goals in as many games, and Cephas is promising an overall improvement of all the club’s statistics.

“I am a new coach, but I will bring a different approach to how the game is played… my first job is to build the confidence of the players and put in a more attacking style of play where we also create chances,” he noted.

— Paul Reid