DEFENDING champions Waterhouse Football Club go in search of a third title when they face Olympic Gardens Football Club in the final of the 2019-2020 Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Lascelles Employees and Partners Co-operative Credit Union Women’s knockout competition today, at the UWI-Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at 3:00 pm.

Waterhouse crushed Arnett Gardens Football Club 9-0 in the return leg to win 17-1 on aggregate in the two-legged semi-finals last Saturday. And Olympic Gardens beat Cavalier Football Club 4-1 for a 6-4 aggregate result after they lost the first leg 2-3.

Waterhouse’s win was highlighted with another four-timer from the competition’s leading goalscorer, Shantel Bailey. She scored in the 15th, 43rd, 57th, and 73rd minutes to move her tally to 37 goals for the season. In the first leg she had also scored four goals.

The teams have met on four occasions this season with Waterhouse winning three and Olympic Gardens, once. They drew 1-1 with Olympic winning 6-2 in the preliminary rounds of the competition, but in the two-way league semi-finals Waterhouse won 4-0 and 2-1 to qualify for the final.

Xavier Gilbert, coach of Waterhouse, said he anticipates a tough encounter against Olympic Gardens, as both teams will be in search of a win.

He will be looking for another top performance from Bailey who scored eight times against Arnett Gardens in the semis.

The Waterhouse coach also expects Davia Richards, Latoya Duhaney, Rochell Grey, Shaneil Buckley, and Laceyann Murray to support Bailey in the hunt for goals.

Gilbert noted that his opponents possess a few national players in their ranks and as such they should not be underestimated.

Meanwhile, Adrian Kitson, coach of Olympic Gardens, said his team played extremely well in the second-leg semi-finals against Cavalier to turn their first-leg defeat into a convincing 4-1 win.

“I think Olympic has a good chance of beating Waterhouse, as all of the players are now fully fit and should produce another good performance as they did against Cavalier.”

Kitson said Waterhouse are a good team but they can be defeated.

The Olympic Gardens coach said he would be relying on Kevena Reid to lead the attacking unit. Reid is the leading goalscorer for the team with 18 goals this season. The supporting role should come from Monique Pryce, Ashley Sawyers, Renee Scott, Tatayann Polack, and Kerall Whyte.