Football’s scourge

AS DENHAM Town High fell to their second consecutive loss in the ISSA/WATA Manning Cup first round on Friday, head coach Marvin Tate said the threat of violence in the west Kingston community has severely hampered the team’s season.

Tate has had to contend with students being unable to attend training sessions regularly, key players going unregistered for the season, and the creeping influence of violence in the Denham Town community.

According to Tate, a feud between Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town has forced several of his players to be wary of attending training sessions during their preseason preparations.

“To be honest, we have had some serious challenges in terms of training because from our start in July, many of our players have been struggling to get to training,” Tate explained.

“A couple of our top players haven’t been registered as yet because of the ongoing feud in the community. As a result of that, many of the guys are very tentative to come out and train.”

With several players missing in action, it has been a mammoth task for the team to get their full complement registered in time for the start of the schoolboy football season.

This forced Denham Town to start the competition with a weakened squad, resulting in defeats that Tate believe were not true reflections of the talent at Denham Town High School.

MORE PLAYERS

“We have another couple of players who are to be registered. They missed the registration earlier, so hopefully when they come in, we’ll see more improvement in the team. It is not really a true reflection of what has transpired on the field but this is how the game goes.

“You give as much as you get and that is our situation. Things have changed somewhat and the team is now basically slowly coming together. Even though we lost, I think we’ve had some good performances,” said Tate.

One of Tate’s major concerns this season is finding a goalkeeper.

Against Wolmer’s Boys on Thursday, Denham Town, who lost 2-0, were forced to field one of their main strikers, Carlton Robinson, as a goalkeeper.

Tate, hoping to build a long-term project at Denham Town High, is calling for a peaceful end to the tensions in west Kingston to allow for the students to freely express their talents on the football field.

“We have had some issues with goalkeeping and we’re yet to settle that position,” he said.

“One of our top strikers actually decided to go in the goal and try to save the team. He’s a very good keeper but he’s also a very good goalscorer, so he decided to keep for the team.

“Where the community is concerned, the main thing that we’d love to see is for the violence to stop. We’d love to see the feud between Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town cease and if that happens, then I’m sure we’d be able to galvanise a lot of support from both communities.”

Denham Town’s next game will be an away fixture against Edith Dalton-James on Thursday.