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Humble Lion’s Vanzie urges greater commitment
February 21, 2022
HUMBLE LION captain, Andrew Vanzie, is calling for more effort and commitment from the younger players in the squad, after his team surrendered a one-nil lead to Waterhouse and had to settle for a 1-1 draw in their Jamaica Premier League football match at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence yesterday.
Vanzie put his team in front in the 66th minute, but Keithy Simpson netted the equaliser for Waterhouse in the 78th minute.
Vanzie, who almost got physical with one of his teammates at the end of the game, said too many players are not pulling their weight and that giving up the late goal was a devastating blow for a team still hunting their first win, after six games.
"We didn't carry out the coach's instruction. The coach always tells us to mark and they didn't mark key players like Keithy (Simpson). They allowed him to put the ball in our net," said Vanzie.
"So I am very disappointed because it has been six games now and we haven't won a game and it doesn't look good," he noted.
"We need to put out some more work on the pitch. We have a lot of players walking around lackadaisical. We are not hungry," he chastised. "We know we have a very young team but most (players) do not have the fight. They are not showing any guts or any drive, and I am trying my best to motivate them and they keep taking it as negative.
"We will have to go back to the training pitch and try to build again for next week," he said.
Vanzie maintains that it is up to senior players to shoulder the responsibilities.
"It relies on us the senior players. We definitely have to lead from the front and drive the team forward," he stated.
Humble Lion's coach, Andrew Price, said he liked the passion being shown by the players.
"We are disappointed with the result. We have had consecutive draws and we need to start turning those draws into three points. I thought we played well enough to get all three," he said.
"I do not mind seeing the passion exhibited. They were upset that they lost all three points, so that shows they want to win games," he added.
Waterhouse's Cardel Benbow had two great chances to get the winner late in the game.
"We got two good chances and you expect your number one striker to put them away, but it is just one of those days," said coach Marcel Gayle.
"It was a good game from both teams tactically, both teams did what they had to do," Gayle assessed. "It was tit-for-tat. We moved the ball and Humble Lion closed the space and they moved the ball and we closed to space."
Waterhouse remain second on 13 points, three behind Mount Pleasant FA, while Humble Lion climbed to ninth with four points, but only ahead of Montego Bay United and Molynes United, on goal difference.
