Members of the Arnett Gardens Football Club and the community at large remain upbeat as they hunt an historic win in the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Sherwin Williams Women’s Premier League final.

The ‘Junglists’, as they are also known, are still celebrating their nail-biting semi-final 4-3 penalty win over GC Foster College, which propelled them to their first final.

However, they are not allowing themselves to be carried by the feat as they are aware of the task at hand against the more experienced Barbican Football Club, defending and multiple champions.

“They are pretty much upbeat… this is a set of girls that started from nowhere to the point where they have reached the final. They have been working assiduously from the start of the season and they are continuing to do a lot of work leading up to the final,” coach Jerome Waite told the Jamaica Observer at a training session on Monday.

Despite it being a ‘David versus Goliath’ situation, Waite is confident that his girls can prove equal to the task.

“The fact that these girls have reached the Premier League final, means that they must have something about them. So going into that final game, the team is expected to continue doing what they do best, and that is to perform and I expect them to really make an impact in that final,” he added.

Arnett Gardens remain one of only two teams in history to hold the highly-favoured Barbican to a draw when they played out a goal-less encounter in the preliminary round. Prior to that, Arnett were clipped 1-0 by the many-time champions, who boast seven national players.

With those results in mind, the team to be led by national striker and leading goal-scorer Shantel Bailey is set to spring a surprise.

“We are pretty much confident,” said Waite. “We played them in our first game when the team was nowhere near where they are at now, and we lost one-nil. The second game it was a nil-all draw and we should have won that game. But we didn’t put away our chances. Now it’s a situation of showing Jamaica what Arnett Garden is made of.”

“A lot of the supporters are upbeat… they are pretty much excited and looking forward to the final,” noted Waite, who also coaches the men’s Premier League side and Charlie Smith High.

He said his players are spending a lot of time improving on their their weak areas leading up to the final, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday at Drewsland Mini-stadium.