Youthful Village United seek to move up
FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Despite a late start to preparations for the Digicel Premier League (DPL) season, Village United’s new technical director Marvin Tate is optimistic his young team can do better than last season’s sixth-placed finish.
Tate, who returns to the Trelawny outfit after a number of years away, told the Observer he was pleased with what he saw of the team in training this week and they were “as ready as we can be” for their opening game against Boys’ Town at the Elliston Wakeland Centre.
Tate, who will have Cassman Williams — who led the team last year — Hopeton Gilchrist, Norman Foster and physical trainer Simon Brown on his staff says fans can expect a more attacking style of play from Village this season.
To this end, he has brought in left-back Kemar Brown, who played for Rivoli last season and will give captain Troy Smith more freedom to go forward.
Last season, Smith led Village with 11 goals while playing mostly from the left-back position that he shared with Lance Laing.
So far, Tate says they are yet to see or hear anything from Laing but are going forward with a squad that he says averages about 22 years old.
Some members of the squad started training in Miami, Florida about seven weeks ago while the other started training here in mid-July.
The Village team, he said, were training at the Tucker field near Montego Bay as the Elliston Wakeland facilities, he said, was not ready for either training or camping.
While first-string goalkeeper Ryan Cooper would start on Sunday, Tate reported that they may need to replace backup Kemar Llewellyn, who is seeking to get a transfer to newcomers Benfica of St Ann.
Dino Williams, who was a revelation after joining the team in January, scoring a number of important goals will lead the Village attack with Delroy Ellis and Oliver Trail also expected to feature in the new-look scheme.