When the fi­nal round of match­es in the 2018 ten-clubT&T Pro League kicks off this af­ter­noon, four teams will still be in the hunt for the cov­et­ed ti­tle.

For most of the sea­son, five-time win­ners, W Con­nec­tion held a com­fort­able lead at the top of the ta­ble, but with the in­jury to the na­tion­al strik­er, Mar­cus Joseph, the “Savonet­ta Boys” saw their ad­van­tage trimmed to one point af­ter go­ing on a five-match win­less streak.

Go­ing in­to to­day’s match­es, W Con­nec­tion heads the ta­ble with 34 points from 17 match­es, one ahead of Club San­do, Po­lice FC and three-time win­ners, Cen­tral FC.

In ad­di­tion to the league ti­tle at stake for the top four teams in the quest for a top-two fin­ish which will guar­an­tee CON­CA­CAF Cham­pi­ons League qual­i­fy­ing foot­ball in the Caribbean Foot­ball Union.

Tonight, W Con­nec­tion will be heav­i­ly fan­cied to com­plete its ti­tle chase as it faces cel­lar-placed Stars at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va from 8 pm; while Cen­tral FC and Po­lice clash in the open­er at Cou­va from 6pm with both clubs need­ing a win to have any chance of lift­ing the ti­tle, as they trail the ta­ble-top­pers on goal-dif­fer­ence.

Down at Mu­cu­rapo, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed meets Club San­do from 6 pm, while San Juan Jabloteh faces St Ann’s Rangers two hours lat­er.

De­spite fal­ter­ing for most of the sec­ond half of the sea­son “Savonet­ta Boys” head coach Stu­art Charles Fevri­er be­lieves it is the best cli­max to a very com­pet­i­tive sea­son and his team will come out tri­umphant in the end.

“We couldn’t ask for a bet­ter cli­max,” said Charles-Fevri­er who has full con­fi­dence in the abil­i­ty of his team.

“It gives you an idea of how com­pet­i­tive the league has been de­spite the chal­lenges faced by teams.”

A win, how­ev­er, for Club San­do and or Po­lice or Cen­tral in their match­es will put them ahead of W Con­nec­tion, forc­ing the “Savonet­ta Boys” in­to a must-win sit­u­a­tion against ta­ble-prop­pers North East Stars, a side fresh off their 21st loss of the sea­son in all com­pe­ti­tions (22 games)--a 4-1 de­feat against De­fence Force in a resched­uled league fix­ture on Wednes­day.

W Con­nec­tion, how­ev­er, is tak­ing no chances against the side an­chored at the bot­tom of the stand­ings.

Charles-Fevri­er and his W Con­nec­tion staff have been prepar­ing for noth­ing less than a win against the side they de­feat­ed 7-1 in the sea­son-open­ing Char­i­ty Shield on June 1.

Stars, less than a shad­ow of the league-win­ning team of last sea­son un­der then-coach Derek King, how­ev­er, showed signs of im­prove­ment los­ing just 2-0 fif­teen days lat­er against W Con­nec­tion in the group stage of the First Cit­i­zens Cup be­fore hold­ing Fevri­er’s men to a shock 1-1 draw in the league on Sep­tem­ber 22.

“It’s a game we must win to be cham­pi­ons on Fri­day,” said the W Con­nec­tion coach.

“It’s a game we have made very good prepa­ra­tions for. We can­not take them (North East Stars) light­ly. They held us to a draw the last time and we must give them cred­it, but on that day we should have had done bet­ter hav­ing cre­at­ed many chances. We were poor in front of goal. It’s a new game on Fri­day and we have to be on top of our game.”

A win now for Stars will end Zo­ran Vranes’ men on high spir­its against the side they will join at the 2019 CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Club Cham­pi­onship as last sea­son’s PL cham­pi­ons and run­ners-up re­spec­tive­ly.

Club San­do’s am­bi­tion to qual­i­fy for the Caribbean Club Cham­pi­onship has been boost­ed by the team’s re­cent form of five straight wins and a sev­en-game un­de­feat­ed run while Po­lice and two-time for­mer Caribbean cham­pi­ons Cen­tral are ea­ger to re­turn to CON­CA­CAF sta­tus.

Like Charles-Fevri­er, Club San­do coach An­gus Eve be­lieves “it speaks vol­umes for the Pro League that four teams are vy­ing for the ti­tle on the fi­nal day.

He said it’s a great ad­vert for the league that there is some sem­blance of par­i­ty.”

Eve, T&T’s most-capped in­ter­na­tion­al, heaped praise on the Min­istry of Sport and Min­is­ter Sham­fa Cud­joe for “see­ing the im­por­tance of de­vel­op­ing young peo­ple and keep­ing them away from the streets”.

He said the Min­istry’s fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to clubs al­so helped in lev­el­ling the play­ing field and that two match­es ago, sev­en teams were still in con­tention for a CON­CA­CAF qual­i­fy­ing spot.

“We (San­do) were aim­ing for a Caribbean Club Cham­pi­onship spot so it was ei­ther first or sec­ond,” ex­plained Eve, who said the am­bi­tion of the club’s chair­man Ed­di­son Dean is to de­vel­op young play­ers for the na­tion­al team and pro­gress­ing to an in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el of com­pe­ti­tion fits in Club San­do’s plans.

Eve speak­ing on his team’s re­cent string of per­for­mances said win­ning is a by-prod­uct of a num­ber of con­tribut­ing fac­tors as his team con­tin­ues in the de­vel­op­ment of his young team led by ex­pe­ri­enced for­ward Ty­rone Charles, who cur­rent­ly leads the league Gold­en Boot race with 17 goals, two more than Po­lice FC’s Ka­reem Fre­itas and W Con­nec­tion’s Mar­cus Joseph.

He said adding Cor­nell Glen as as­sis­tant coach proved a mas­ter­stroke as the for­mer T&T in­ter­na­tion­al and 2006 World Cup for­ward has been ex­cel­lent in work­ing with the team’s of­fence.

“We know his ex­ploits as a for­ward be­cause he was a good goalscor­er and some­times I think he still wants to play.

His en­thu­si­asm for the game is passed on to the play­ers.”

Club San­do scored 25 goals in their last sev­en out­ings, more than any oth­er team but Eve is wary of Mor­vant Cale­do­nia, the team his side had to wres­tle a 5-3 win over in Sep­tem­ber.

Eve will square off on the side­lines with Mor­vant Cale­do­nia coach Jer­ry More for a sec­ond time in four days af­ter lead­ing Na­pari­ma Col­lege to a 4-3 penal­ty win over San Juan North Sec­ondary, coached by Moe, in the Co­ca-Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter-Col fi­nal to com­plete the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) 2018 tre­ble as Pre­mier Di­vi­sion, South In­ter-Col and Na­tion­al In­ter-Col cham­pi­ons.

Up­com­ing match­es

To­day (Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va)

Cen­tral FC vs Po­lice FC, 6pm

W Con­nec­tion vs North East Stars, 8pm

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed vs Club San­do, 6pm

San Juan Jabloteh vs St Ann’s Rangers, 8pm

(Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo)

Lat­est T&T Pro League stand­ings

Teams*P*W*D*L*GF*GA*Pts

1. W Con­nec­tion*17*9*7*1*39*8*34

2. Club San­do*17*10*3*4*44*23*33

3. Po­lice FC*17*10*3*4*37*20*33

4. Cen­tral FC*17*10*3*4*41*25*33

5. De­fence Force*18*9*3*6*38*21*30

6. Mor­vant Cale­do­nia *17*7*6*4*33*22*27

7. Jabloteh*17*7*3*7*24*24*24

8. Pt Fortin Civic*18*3*2*13*20*46 11

9. St Ann’s Rangers*17*3*1*13*13*62*10

10. North East Stars*17*1*3*13*16*54*6