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Vere surprise champs Portmore
July 07, 2021
United coach Donovan Duckie heaped praise on his players after his team produced a solid performance yesterday to clip defending champions Portmore United 1-0 in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL).
The Clarendon-based club remain unbeaten in two matches and Duckie said his team's good start is a shock to him.
"It is a wonderful start. They have surprised me. I am surprised to be on four points," he said. "Three weeks of preparation, and the most we did was some physical. We itemised areas and did a lot of tactical work but we are not sharp, we cannot move the ball how we want, we are not explosive and our speed is not good. So we have not done one third of what we wanted to do," he said.
However, he insists that the Vere project is a long-term one and they have no real objective for this season, other than doing things consistently right. And he believes that if they are able to do the right things on a consistent basis, they will be in the mix when the playoffs come around.
"In everything you do, you have to set targets, team goals and objectives. It is the consistency that I am looking for, how we play the game, how we approach the game psychologically, how we build each phase of play ... working on team shape and compactness. So those simple things are what we are concentrating on.
"Normally, you have six to seven weeks of preseason. We didn't even play one squad game or one practice game leading up to the competition. I am definitely pleased with the start because of the (preparation) time we had," he said.
Both teams started purposefully and got good openings in the early minutes of the contest. Ricardo Dennis had the best chance of putting the underdogs, Vere, in front when he found space inside the box in the 15th minute but he hesitated and his effort was blocked.
Portmore controlled possession but Vere were always looking for the break on the counter and 65 minutes into the game the Clarendon team cut the St Catherine side wide open on one such counter-attack, and Dennis played in Lamard Neil to slot past Kemar Foster in the Portmore goal.
Portmore coach Ricardo Gardner thought his team did not show the quality he expected in the final third.
"The end product could be a lot better. We have a lot to learn from here. We seem to be on the right path when we are keeping possession but we just need to fix the end product," he added.
In yesterday's opening match at the UWI/Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, Tivoli Gardens edged Arnett Gardens 1-0 with Devroy Grey getting the winner.
