Waterhouse should fear Cavalier – Speid

After Waterhouse’s assistant coach, Daniel Bent, came out and declared that they are looking to make light work of Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) semi-final opponents Cavalier, the black and whites’ head coach, Rudolph Speid, cautioned last season’s beaten finalists against underestimating his team.

Speid reminded Bent that his club has not beaten Cavalier in the last three seasons, adding that his team’s record against the Drewsland-based club is actually improving.

Bent commented that Waterhouse are targeting a repeat of last year’s final, which they lost to Portmore United and that they would be sending a message through a powerful display against Cavalier while hoping that Portmore handle their business against their semi-final opponents, Mount Pleasant Football Academy.

Both games take place tomorrow at the National Stadium, with the Portmore-Mount Pleasant encounter getting things started at 5:30 p.m. before Waterhouse and Cavalier’s 8:30 p.m. meeting.

UNBEATEN

However, as the excitement builds ahead of the game, Speid is warning Bent and his team not to get ahead of themselves.

“They (Waterhouse) have not beaten us for three years now. When we were in Super League, we played them in the Jackie Bell semi-finals and beat them. Last year (RSPL), we beat them once and had two draws and this year (RSPL), we beat them twice with one draw, so our record against them is getting better and better, so that’s fine if they want to overlook us. The record does not speak to their team. We are actually getting better against them in the last three years even when we were in Super League, so it looks to me like it is harder for them to deal with us,” Speid said.

Based on their recent history, Speid argued that Waterhouse should be the team coming into the match with concerns as Cavalier have shown that they can find a way against the regular season runners-up.

“Everybody at Waterhouse should be very wary of us as you can see the gap (between the teams) each year is increasing in our favour. The playoffs is different, but not much different. Every game, you have to prepare differently. This is going to be a more cat-and-mouse game. Waterhouse are a good team. They have only five losses this season, but in those five losses, Cavalier gave them two, so we always find a way to do well against them, and we don’t expect that to change,” Speid added.

“People talk about our offence, but we have the second-best defence in the league, so it is also very hard to score against us, and we know we have a good all-round team, so we are not worried because anybody can talk,” he insisted.