Leaders Naps eye full points vs lowly Speyside

It will be a clash of top versus bottom today when Naparima face Speyside, at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima, in a Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Round 13 encounter.

The points table was rearranged by the SSFL on Thursday, after an executive meeting decided to kick Fyzabad Secondary out of the league.

Fyzabad were found guilty of registering a pair of players whose Caribbean Examination Council documents were fraudulent.

Naparima, the 2015 Premier Division winners, have 26 points from 11 games and will be looking to move closer towards obtaining the 2017 crown with a win against the lowly Speyside, who only have a tally of seven points from 12 matches. Ironically, Speyside, San Juan North and QRC are the only teams whose points tally were not affected by the removal of Fyzabad from the 2017 campaign.

The Naps-Speyside game was originally set to take place at Lewis Street in San Fernando, but the venue was shifted due to persistent rainfall during the past few days.

Naparima coach Angus Eve acknowledged yesterday, “the rains have been falling consistently in South.

We don’t want the games to pile up. We know the season is already congested.”

The former national captain and midfielder stated that his team’s ambition this season is to dethrone Shiva Boys and claim the Premier Division crown.

“That’s been our goal for the season,” said Eve. “The confidence level is (high).” Eve noted, “I’ve seen growth in this group (of players). I’ve seen them gel and come together. We play a team game, we know that no game is going to be easy.”

Questioned about the incident involving Fyzabad, Eve replied, “I think it’s a good move. It’s unfortunate that the players and the coaches, and all the children in the school, will have to go through this.

“At the end of the day, this thing has to be stamped out to make the League better,” he ended.

Another game which saw a venue change (due to the inclement weather) was the contest between St Benedict’s and fourth-placed Shiva Boys, which will now be staged at Barrackpore, instead of Debe.

St Anthony’s, with 24 points, are within touching distance of Naparima. The “Westmoorings Tigers” will seeking their fourth straight win when they visit St Augustine.

Another key game today is the matchup between third-placed Presentation San Fernando and Trinity East, at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.

Other games today will feature Carapichaima East against QRC at Carapichaima and St Mary’s versus Fatima at the CIC Ground, St Clair. The meeting between Signal Hill and Trinity Moka has been postponed. Today’s matches will get going at 3.40 pm.

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