With just one match day to go to the halfway stage of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) there are two keen battles taking place between the top two teams in the league. One battle is to finish top of the table and the other is a battle between the league’s top two goalscorers.

On Sunday, Trivante Stewart scored a stoppage-time header to help leaders Mount Pleasant carve out a hard-fought 1-0 win over fourth-placed Humble Lions and took his tally to 10 goals and sole leader in the Golden Boot race. But on Monday night, Stewart was rejoined at the top by Cavalier’s Colin Anderson who scored the second goal for his team in their 2-0 win over 11th-placed Molynes United.

At the end of match week 12, Mount Pleasant are on 27 points while Cavalier are on 25 points, four more than third-placed Arnett Gardens.

Anderson is enjoying what has become a two-man race for the Golden Boot, something he set his sights on from the back end of last season.

“From last season, coming into this season I stayed focused, and I set a goal that I want to be the leading goalscorer this season. So, I keep working on it in training and delivering out here. That’s the best thing.”

His early season success has not come by accident but through very hard work this term.

“I train three times in one day. Whenever I train in the morning with the team, I go home and sometimes I train 12 o’clock, sometimes I train 5 o’clock. I go hard every day,” he emphasised.

The former Calabar High school student, who is nicknamed “Tracks Man” because of his previous exploits in track and field in high school, is enjoying the reward for his hard work and appreciates the love and support he gets from his teammates.

“It’s a tremendous feeling knowing that I come out here and I deliver all the time. That hard background work that I am doing it is working and I am really, really proud of myself.

“[My teammates] are proud. They are really, really proud and they congratulate me all the time, and I like that about this team. I really, really love this team. It’s the best team I ever played for in my career.”

Anderson has two main targets for the season and believes that he is right on target to achieve both.

“To win this trophy for sure, that is the goal for this season. I did set a target of 20-25 goals, and I said it in the early part of the season, and I am on the path right now to go for it.”

Anderson will be hoping to be on the score sheet to end the first round of the campaign when Cavalier take on Montego Bay United in the first game of a double-header at the Ashenheim Stadium at Jamaica College on Sunday starting at 3:00 pm.

— Dwayne Richards