Sporting coach eyes DPL top six

BY OSHANE TOBIAS

Thursday, March 11, 2010

CLARENDON PARK, Clarendon -- Vassell 'Tutu' Reynolds, the new head coach of Sporting Central Academy, lost his first game in charge of the struggling Digicel Premier League outfit but is optimistic the vision of playing top-flight football next season is on target.

He believes the only way to ensure this is to finish in the top half of the 12-team league.

"... One of the things that I told them is that, my... focus now is not bottom six because the only way you're going to guarantee a place in the league next season is by finishing in the top six".

Sporting (30 points) slipped into the relegation zone for the second time this season following their 0-1 home defeat to last-placed Portmore United on Sunday.

The defeat, which was their seventh at home in all competitions this season, means they're now on a eight-match winless streak, including six losses and two draws.

Their last victory was way back on January 10 when they clipped Rivoli United 2-1 in the last game of the second round.

But despite the ordinary statistics, Reynolds thinks finishing in the top six is not a farfetched idea, seeing that they are just four points 'in the red' with four games to go in the third round.

"My immediate task is to get the team to understand the position that they are in. I had a meeting with them and we laid out everything on the table and they all understand that we're faced with a challenge.

"We have four games to go (in the third round)... that's 12 points available to us, (so) we will just have to look at the target... in terms of the amount of points that we need to get from those 12," said Reynolds, who played daCosta Cup football for Clarendon College in the early 1980s.

"We just need to set ourselves goals for the next couple of games... nine games to go, irrespective of where you fall, and I will now have to prepare the team physically and mentally," he added.

Reynolds, who is in charge of the youth programme at Wolmer's Boys School, has a coaching résumé that includes stints with Clarendon Under-15s, Edwin Allen High, Garvey Maceo High, Vere Technical, Humble Lion and Los Perfectos. This, he believes, accounts for the warm reception he received from the Sporting players.

"... I was pleasantly surprised with the sort of welcome that I got, and I think it's due to the fact that I'm a Clarendon-based person and most of the players would have known me from the school level or the Clarendon youth programme", he told the Observer from Brancourt on Tuesday evening.

And while he believes the team's inability to score is a real pain, he reckons the heavy rotation of players between the Under-21 and the senior team may be at the root of Sporting's problems.

"The lack of goalscoring is a challenge and we'll continue to work on that. But ne of the other problems is the fact that we have a large volume of players playing in the Under-21 and the squad is not that large as you would like... so the balance between playing the Under-21 and the Premier League is a big concern," he said.

Reynolds, who has coached players with the quality of an Eric Vernon -- Jamaica and Portmore United's on-loan winger at Norwegian First Division Club Nybergsund IL-Trysil, said it wasn't a difficult decision accepting the job at Sporting.

"... It's easier for me to accept a job like this, knowing that the team is not doing as well it should be doing and hence, probably I feel more comfortable knowing that it's less pressure," he said.

"But... one of the main reasons is that my roots have always been in Clarendon. I know a lot of the players... I coached a lot of them... so it wasn't a difficult decision for me to make.

"And thirdly, I see it has a challenge and an opportunity for personal development. This is my first stint at the Premier League level," he emphasised.

As for how long he will be staying at the club, Reynolds said: "... I was asked to come and assist for the rest of the season. At the end, we will see what happens."

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