Ryon Jones, Staff Reporter

With two rounds of games remaining Boys' Town, in the 2011/2012 Red Stripe Premier League season, Boys Town find themselves with an outside chance of wresting the title from Portmore United with some help from Waterhouse.

The Red Brigade came close to a first Premier League title in over 20 years last season, but missed out by four points after failing to secure the victory needed in the final round against eventual champions Tivoli Gardens.

Portmore lead the 12-team standing with 66 points, six ahead of Boys' Town (60) with a mere two rounds of games remaining. Portmore only need a point from their remaining two fixtures and are overwhelming favourites to claim their first league title since the 2007-2008 season and fifth overall (two of which were won when the club was known as Hazard United).

dethroned champions

However, the title race, that had appeared dead and buried at one stage, has been injected with life courtesy of a dismal showing in the fourth round by the St Catherine team. They have picked up a mere two points from their last three games, playing away to a 1-1 draw with Harbour View before being held to a similar scoreline at home by dethroned champions Tivoli Gardens. These were followed by a surprise 3-0 defeat at the hands of Humble Lion at their Ferdie Neita Park base on Monday night.

Boys' Town on the other hand have managed six points from their three third round games. The Brigade clipped Waterhouse 1-0 before suffering a 2-0 away loss at the hands of Harbour View. While in their most recent league match they got by Tivoli 2-1.

Boys' Town have an opportunity to reduce the deficit to a mere three points, as they will host Portmore United on Monday in the final game in the penultimate round. In addition to securing the victory, however, Boys' Town is in need of goals, as Portmore's (12) goal difference is six better than theirs (six).

If the teams end up with the same number of points, the first method of separation is the goal difference in all the group matches.

The last time the two teams met in the league Boys' Town won 4-2 at Ferdie Neita Park on the back of a superb hat-trick by captain Michael Campbell. The other two meetings saw both teams record 1-0 home victories.

If Boys' Town are able to secure victory in the teams' upcoming encounter, and by an impressive margin, it will set up an intriguing final round of games. Boys' Town will play away to Humble Lion, a team they have failed to beat all season, with two of the meetings ending in draws (2-2 and 0-0) to go with a 2-0 loss. Boys' Town can take some solace in the fact that Humble Lion have the third worst home record in the competition, with only the two relegated teams, Village United and Reno, having feared worse.

Portmore conversely will host Waterhouse in their final match, a team they have defeated in all three previous league meetings this season (2-1, 1-0 and 2-1), but the leaders have shown that their performance in the previous three rounds is nothing to go by in this the fourth and final round.