PHC have a chance to cement their position at the top of the Premier Division standings when they take on Hamilton Parish at Wellington Oval this afternoon.

With four matches remaining, Quincy Hunt’s side are three points clear of second-placed North Village.

They return to a venue where they displayed their fighting spirit, when they twice came from behind to defeat St George’s 3-2 a fortnight ago.

On that same day, Village lost some ground in the title race after being held to a 1-1 stalemate by Dandy Town.

The last time PHC met Parish, at the beginning of November, the champions triumphed 6-1. Parish have, however, gone on to post some positive results since that drubbing, including a 2-1 win over Devonshire Cougars two weeks ago.

Sergio Goater, the Parish coach, is well aware of the challenges his side are expected to face against PHC.

“It’s a very difficult game,” he said. “We still need points, these are the games you get up for, so we’re going to give it our best shot and see what happens.

“I know exactly what to expect when we play PHC. You have to remain totally focused the entire time because they’re going to keep constantly coming.”

Parish have struggled for numbers of late, naming just one substitute on the bench against Cougars. To compound matters, one of their key players, Jayhre Bean, does not play on Saturdays for religious reasons.

“The Saturday games they really hurt, he [Bean] can’t play again but we should be all right,” he said. “We’re not going to be at full strength again, but the last time we played PHC we didn’t even have a goalkeeper. We had to patch together a team, so we should give a better account of ourselves this time around.

“Jordan Burgess ended up playing in goal, and we brought guys who hadn’t played football in years.”

At Bernard Park, Village go into battle against Paget, a team fighting to finish in the top four. Kenny Thompson’s side cannot avoid any slip-up at this stage, as they are due to meet PHC in the penultimate round of fixtures.

Paget player-coach Antwan Russell is relishing the chance to prove himself against Thompson, his longtime mentor. While Paget trail Village by 12 points, Russell is not intimidated heading into the fixture.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to coach against Kenny Thompson, my former coach at club and national level,” Russell said.

“We’re going to do our best, even though they are second, I believe that football is all about on the day.

“I wouldn’t say who wants it more but who does more to get what they want.

“We’re just going to apply ourselves, do what it takes, put in the work, hopefully, the result falls our way.

“We’re missing Delray [Rawlins] who’s away with the national cricket team.

“He’ll be a big miss but we have guys that are capable of putting the ball into the net, I can guarantee that they’ll be up for the job.”

Tomorrow, St George’s Colts are at home against Young Men’s Social Club, while Town face Somerset Trojans.