THE Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) football competition culminates tonight with Jamaica’s two finest teams battling for the privilege to be called 2014-2015 champions.

Supporters of Montego Bay United, the title holders, and those of Arnett Gardens FC, by some way the most consistent club this season, will be eagerly anticipating what promises to be a riveting championship clash at the National Stadium, starting approximately nine o’clock.

Both teams passed the semi-final stage through contrasting results. Montego Bay United, the standard-bearers of rural Jamaica, recorded 3-1 and 5-1 victories over last season’s beaten finalists Waterhouse FC in the two-way tie for a resounding 8-2 aggregate triumph.

Arnett Gardens, who were eliminated at the semi-finals last season, had a much trickier task.

They had to pull out a nervy 3-2 win over Humble Lion FC in Clarendon after the teams had ended 1-1 at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex in leg one.

Jerome Waite, the veteran Arnett Gardens head coach, predicts an entertaining contest. “We’re feeling pretty much confident, but it should be a tough game, it should be an exciting encounter.

We are going up against the defending champions and we are the number one team, so we expect a competitive game,” he told the Jamaica Observer yesterday. Arnett Gardens, who last won the national league title in 2001-02, scored a tabletopping 60 goals in 33 matches this season.

That output landed them the number one spot with 69 points during the preliminary stage. Montego Bay, who had the second best defensive record while conceding only 27 times, finished all of 16 points adrift in third place. But it was the Montego Bay team that had the better headto- head record.

The teams drew 0-0 and 1-1 in Arnett Gardens, which sandwiched a 5-0 thrashing handed out by the Montegonians on their home turf in St James. Furthermore, Montego Bay’s manhandling of Waterhouse show they are performing at a high level.

But Waite does not appear to be in awe. While conceding Montego Bay is a “good team”, he argued that Waterhouse “didn’t turn up to the party” in the semi-finals.

“They [Montego Bay] are a hard-running team and that’s one of their strengths. It’s the two fittest teams in the competition and Arnett Gardens have been the best attacking team. It’s a matter of who executes on the day,” Waite added. Holding the reins at Montego Bay United is the wily Dr Dean Weatherly.

He took over Montego Bay with only two games remaining in the preliminaries when the club’s hierarchy controversially parted ways with head coach Carlos Garcia.

Similarly in the previous campaign, Weatherly guided the St James-based outfit to the title after taking charge with six games left in the regular season. He has experienced success across the local football spectrum and is plotting the demise of yet another big scalp.

“We have to approach cautiously, we cannot expect them to play dead because they have been consistent. They are a well-coached team, a team with a wealth of talent and a team that knows how to win based on their history. We have to see what they bring and we have to make necessary adjustments from there,” Weatherly told the Observer.

“Any game you play, you have to nullify what your opponents are coming with and put your plans in place to score goals and to be successful,” the experienced campaigner added.

Arguing that Montego Bay, formerly known as Seba United, are not respected enough, he said that winning back-to-back titles could change that.

The goal, he claims, is to leave a lasting legacy. For Montego Bay, therein lies significant motivation. “I don’t think we get the respect we deserve, so it’s a motivational factor within itself in terms of repeating. For a team to be considered as one of the greats you have to perform,” Weatherly stressed.