CLARENDON PARK, Clarendon — Brandon Murray has shrugged off suggestions that if his Sporting Central Academy team is to ever become a genuine contender for the Digicel Premier League title in the future, he will need to recruit a ready-made goalscorer to put away the chances that is youthful squad so easily create.

Since gaining promotion to the top league three seasons ago, Sporting — armed with an ambitious vision of exposing central Jamaica’s brightest young talents — have no doubt caught the imagination of many in the local football fraternity, as they impress each week with their exciting brand of touch football and off-the-ball movement.

But despite having an easy task breaking down even the sturdiest of defences, the young team has a real problem putting the ball into the back of the net.

With 26 matches completed so far this season, the team have only scored 23 goals, while conceding the same number and are on 30 points in seventh spot — that’s 21 adrift of leaders Harbour View and three above the drop zone.

And it is for this reason why many fans believe that the team could achieve much more if a tailor-made forward is added to the team’s roster.

But Murray does not share that opinion. In fact, he thinks that once Sporting mature as a unit, things will naturally fall into place.

“I think that we have what it takes to win the Premier League… right now we are not genuine contenders but things can change. I believe that we probably need some more punch upfront, but at the same time we are trying to be patient with the team in general,” he said.

In fact, Murray, who is co-founder and president of the Clarendon-based outfit, believes that he has all the firepower that he needs in national Under-20 striker Alanzo Adlam, hailing the diminutive player as the best within his age group.

He also thinks that with time, the young Francois Swaby will mature into a goalscoring machine.

Murray, the former St George’s College and Munro College schoolboy footballer, said: “We have Francois Swaby… excellent runner off the ball and hopefully (he) begins to put away one or two of those chances. He was the leading goalscorer in the Under-21 easily last year… he shared the title with a young man from Harbour View.”

Since returning to Sporting Central from Harbour View in the January transfer window, Adlam has only scored one goal. He also missed a penalty last week Wednesday against Arnett Gardens that would have possibly gave his team their first victory of the third round.

Swaby with five goals, on the other hand, has not scored since the first round. But, despite this, Murray is maintaining that both strikers are just going through a bad patch.

He is optimistic that they will get their act together soon. “We strongly believe at this point we don’t need to rush to import somebody because this man is a goalscorer,” he said, referring to Adlam.

“Any striker can have a bad day and we are trying to encourage young players, so we need to be patient with the results and allow them to achieve their goals (as well),” said Murray.

“We have Alanzo Adlam… (he) is to me the country’s best young striker and he is here and has done well,” ended Murray.