Portmore still confident – Gardner

Portmore United’s head coach, Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner, insists their recent disappointments at the Caribbean Club Championship and Concacaf Champions League, have not dented their confidence despite suffering a 1-0 loss to Tivoli Gardens in the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) yesterday.

Portmore were flying prior to their participation in Group B of the Caribbean Club Championship from February 5-9, and their two legged Concacaf Champions League tie against Mexican outfit, Cruz Azul on February 18 and 25.

The defending RSPL champions were on a four match winning streak, and had score nine goals in their last two RSPL games before going on international duties.

However, they failed to get a point or score a goal in the three team Caribbean Club Championship group, before losing 2-1 at home and 4-0 away to Cruz Azul in Mexico to exit the Concacaf Champions League.

Although Gardner concedes that his team has not fully recovered physically from the two international tournaments, he said mentally, the results are behind them and they are now focused on retaining their domestic title.

“That (Concacaf Champions League and Caribbean Club Championship) is over and dusted, our main focus is now the next (RSPL) game. There is nothing we can do about what has happened, our focus now is the next training session, then taking it into the next game,” Gardner said.

He revealed that in light of their recent international commitments, they have tried their best to manage the players.

“We switched around some players and gave some (fringe) players minutes, so we are trying to manage the team as much as possible, because we have a lot of games coming up and we have to try to manage the squad and rotate as much as possible,” Gardner said.

Tivoli’s win meant that Portmore slipped one place down the table to fourth on 42 points, but Gardner believes they will regain momentum very soon.

“We have to learn how to defend a bit better. If we can fix those little errors, we will be good going forward,” he said. “It’s a tough loss but we had enough in and around their (penalty) area where we could have capitalised on something.”

“It’s a tough loss but we have to hold up our heads and come again. We have players who can rise to the level, we just have to continue to fight and move forward, we have quality players here and I am sure we will pick up again,” added Gardner.

Meanwhile, Tivoli moved to 40 points and into the top six for the first time this season.