After defending champions Cavalier FC survived a scare on Sunday, Assistant Coach David Laylor is confident the young team will raise their levels as they look to book their spot in the Wray & Nephew Jamaica Premier League semi-finals for the seventh-straight season.

Cavalier take on Waterhouse in their second-leg quarter-final at the National Stadium at 6:00 pm with the tie locked at 2-2.

The 2024 and 2025 champions found themselves two goals down in seven minutes through strikes from Neron Barrow and Denardo Thomas, but managed to come away with a draw thanks to goals from Daryl Massicot and Kimarly Scott.

Laylor says the team needs to be more alert in the second leg to avoid another dramatic fightback.

“The reality is we just gave up two early goals. We started very slow and Waterhouse capitalised,” he said.

“This is one of the best Waterhouse teams I’ve seen over the longest while [and] they had a good run in the first six, seven minutes of the game and that’s why we started slow. So all we did was make some adjustment to get back in the game now.”

Cavalier’s recent record against Waterhouse isn’t a good one as they have not beaten the Drewsland outfit since September 2024.

However, history may be on the side of Cavalier as they’ve made the semi-finals of the play-offs every season since they regained promotion to the league in the 2017/2018 campaign.

Although they lost many of last season’s title-winning stars, Laylor believes the league’s youngest team can still get the job done

“The youngsters are getting into their own now and the results showed [on Sunday] when our youngsters scored so it shows that they are getting confident and they are maturing in the league in just one season, so it’s a good look for us going forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, Waterhouse Head Coach Javier Ainstein believes his team lost a major advantage, which makes today’s second leg more difficult.

“We were so irresponsible and unresponsive and I believe that on the defensive side, we were underestimating a lot and these strikers are able to score,” he said. “We need to work and we need to talk with the players because, in my opinion, we were irresponsible. It’s a play-off, it’s not a match with your friends on Friday night. It’s a serious match.”

The Argentine, who joined in Janaury, is looking to guide the club to the final four after they missed the playoffs last season under former coach Marcel Gayle.

Ainstein says the team cannot afford to make any mistakes like they did on Sunday.

“I know the strengths of Cavalier on set pieces, mid-block or low-block and quick transitions in offence, so I wasn’t surprised but we need to be more calm with the ball. Cavalier are just waiting for a mistake to do a quick transition and we need to avoid that,” he said.

In the other quarter-final second leg match at 9:00 pm, Portmore United and Racing United do battle with the tie locked at 3-3.

Portmore are looking for their first semi-final berth since 2019, while it would be history for play-off debutants Racing, who were promoted in 2024.

Cavalier FC Assistant Coach David Laylor (Photo: Observer file)

Javier Ainstein, Waterhouse FC head coach (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Waterhouse players Colorado Murray (centre), Kvist Paul (left) and Neron Barrow and their teammates will look to book their place in the Jamaica Premier League semi-finals when they tackle defending champions Cavalier in the second-leg playoff at the National Stadium on Wednesday at 6:00pm. Both teams are locked at 2-2.(Photo: Naphtali Junior)