Portmore to put rebuilding plans on show against Cavalier
Published:Sunday | January 30, 2022 | 12:13 AMLivingston Scott - Gleaner Writer
CAVALIER AND Portmore United come into their Jamaica Premier League (JPL) fixture this afternoon at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at 3:15 with quite different plans.
While Cavalier, who have a win from their first match, will be fixed on taking three points, Portmore coach Lenworth Hyde said his side will be persisting with their rebuilding project and will be injecting more new players this afternoon.
“We are looking for a difficult game. We expect a very tough match from the defending champions,” said Hyde.
“But we are in a rebuilding process and we do not mind the start. Those things happen when you have a new set of players and trying to build chemistry with youths.
“The progress looks good. We will be making a few changes tomorrow [today]. We will see some additional youths coming in and we will see how they handle it and then we can go from there,” he said.
Although the main focus is to rebuild a formidable Portmore unit over the long term, Hyde was quick to point out that the effort to earn three points each game would not be diminished.
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
“Our aim is blood some youths in the programme. So we are starting from scratch. But we will be trying to win the game and play good football.
“We don’t want to drop points while we are doing this but anything can happen when you are doing things like this. But we just have to coach and try to improve the players every time,” he commented.
With Rodolph Austin out for the match, goalkeeper Eric Edwards, Emilio Rousseau and Demar Rose will have to provide the experience in the team
However, he insists that the young players will have to learn what it takes to be competitive in the league.
“We want to win, so these players will have to learn how to win. Some of them, it is the first they are gracing the field and we are not afraid to do that.
“We will teach them that they will have to work hard out there and learn the rudiments of Premier League football,” he said.
Cavalier coach Rudolph Speid noted that his team will be going into today’s game a little weakened after the loss of Bryan English and Jamoi Topey to red cards in the last match.
Nevertheless, Speid said the aim is to bounce back immediately.
“We tried to build back our confidence and will try to win the next game. We will be under-strength because we got two red cards.
“But we are looking to bounce back. We have looked at what we did wrong. We have looked at Portmore and what they are doing and how we can counter them.
“We got three difficult games early and we just have to do what we have to do,” he said.
Portmore and Cavalier play in the second game of a double-header and preceding them at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at 1 p.m. will be front runners Waterhouse and Dunbeholden.
Both teams have taken maximum points from their two matches, scoring five and conceding one. That matchup should, if they don’t play out a draw, be for all the marbles this round.