TONIGHT, when Humble Lion take on Sporting Central Academy at the Effortville Community Centre in the first Clarendon derby of the season, returning to the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) summit will be foremost in their minds. But it certainly won’t be the only thing.

The Central Clarendon side, enjoying their best start to a league campaign, will be looking to inflict further pain on their parish rivals who are so far struggling to find their feet in the 2013-14 RSPL season.

While Geoffrey Maxwell’s Humble Lion, 13 points, haven’t dropped any lower than second since the competition began in September, Sporting have been something of a permanent fixture at the opposite end of the 12-team points standing — failing to build on the momentum of an impressive opening day victory over defending champions Harbour View at their new Juici Patties Park home ground in Clarendon Park.

In seven games, the south-west Clarendon side have lost a league-high five and won the other two, while scoring six goals and conceding 11 — certainly not the kind of statistics they were hoping to post this early in the season.

Searching for answers to Sporting’s early season blues, many supporters have blamed the switch to the recently developed Juici Patties Park. They believe, while the new venue boasts better facilities — enabling the club to maximise earnings from gate receipts — it has an inferior playing surface to the neighbouring Brancourt, which is now being used as the team’s training base.

“The field nuh suit Sporting style,” one supporter recently argued. “Sporting love stretch defence with through balls and wide play. This yah field nuh big enough fi do dat.”

While the argument certainly has merit — for the most part Sporting do in fact struggle to emulate their fluid, passing game on this smaller pitch ‚ it will be hard for well-thinking individuals to digest it.

So far, Sporting’s only points of the campaign — victories over Harbour View (2-0) and Portmore United (3-1) — were mined at home, while in the 0-1 defeats to Rivoli United and Cavalier they created more than enough chances to win both games. However, they have lost every game played on the road.

Naturally, fans have also pointed fingers at the coaching staff, made up of Merron Gordon and Linval ‘Pala’ Wilson — faulting them for the team’s failures. But for a club that has changed an average of three coaches per season in the last three years, many will also have a difficult time accepting that Sporting problems lie in tactics.

Continuing the inquest into their stuttering start to the campaign, the club posted a recent Q&A feature on its official Facebook page in which former player Carnell Learmond, now residing in the United States, said: “Before playing in the National Premier League, Sporting had a winning formula. History shows that (the team) plays a good brand of football, but winning games on a consistent basis has been a problem. What must Sporting do to get back that killer instinct?”

The response, attributed to head coach Merron Gordon, called for more quality players. “Our brand of football is attractive and our focus on youth is our foremost commitment (but) I think we need some more quality to win consistently.”

Following Thursday’s defeat to Cavalier, Linval Wilson, Gordon’s assistant, sang a somewhat similar tune. “Players need to start take more responsibility,” he said. “Most time when teams lose people come down on coaches, but a full time now wi start come down on players. A full time now wi start move players and get in players.”

Others have, however, chosen to be more philosophical about the team’s current form. “Well, maybe this time wi a go end the season on a high,” one fan recently said, before adding: “When wi have a good start wi end up fighting relegation, so maybe is the other way around.”

For the time being, this also seems to be the approach that the club’s management team is taking — publicly at least. “We must take the bad before getting the good, endure failure before experiencing success and lose before we win. So we will NEVER GIVE UP!” a club statement said after their 4-0 defeat at Arnett Gardens, in October.

Since that game, Sporting have only managed one victory, to which they are obviously disappointed, but for the most part they remain in good spirits. And heading to Effortville, they do have reasons to be optimistic: They have never lost a league game at ‘Farm’, where their hosts have been underwhelming so far this term.

Humble Lion’s only defeats in seven outings — 1-0 to Waterhouse and 2-0 to August Town — have come at home. But if coach Maxwell doesn’t seem to be too concerned about it at the moment, it’s only because his players have been making amends on the road where they are so far unbeaten — picking up seven points from two victories and one drawn game.

And should Sporting play like they did against Cavalier on Thursday, Humble Lion won’t have to worry too much about suffering further damage to their home record. Who knows? Minutes after nine tonight, they might even be rejoicing in the virtues of their first home victory against Sporting.