Blend of youth and experience key to Boys’ Town, says Price
The 2010-2011 Digicel Premier League football competition is scheduled to kick off on Sunday, August 29. As the Observer continues its daily preview of the teams, today we look at Portland-based St Georges SC and KSAFA’s Boys’ Town.
After a 10-year hiatus, Boys’ Town re-entered the nation’s top football league back in 2005 with high hopes of rekindling their former glory days when they were champions and perennial contenders of the national title in the 1980s.
Fans yearn for a return of those days when the Red Brigade were kings of their domain.
Since returning to topflight football, they have done fairly well — never in any real danger of going back down. Last season they finished fifth in the 12-team league.
But they have had other successes in knock out tournaments — back-to-back (2009 & 2010) wins in the Champions Cup and the KSAFA Jackie Bell KO in 2006.
Their technical director Andrew Price said he has embarked on a mini-rebuilding process and will incorporate more young players in the team and he hopes they will blend with the more experienced set to create the winning formula.
“We are looking at a youthful squad (this year), because the players that we currently have are young players, plus we have played the league with some experienced players who we believe have served us well over a period of time,” he explained.
Price, a former Boys’ Town and Jamaica defender, said his team tends to struggle towards the back end of the long season, and is optimistic that introducing “young blood” into the team will cure this problem.
“We are going to need those extra legs when the time comes, so I believe that we just have to be consistent for the entire season, get some wins in a row and build some momentum and take it from there,” he added.
Price noted that talents resides within the Boys’ Town set-up and he’s banking on this to take the Collie Smith Drive outfit to the top.
“There is no question we have quality players, but we will have to play on a consistent basis over a nine-month period… but I believe these are players we can really lean on to give us some good results,” he said.
He singled out Marvin Morgan, Dean Thompson, Asrick Samuels, Michael Campbell, Kirk Porter and Daemion Benjamin as the individuals on whom a lot depends.
In addition to the above mentioned players, defender Anthowe Dawkins of Arnett Gardens has made the move down the road. Also, defender Anthony Bennett, who was on loan last season, has formalised a permanent move to Boys’ Town, while former Rivoli defender Mark Newsome is also expected to bolster the Boys’ Town backline.
And despite losing Peter Keyes to Waterhouse, Price believes he has players to cover for the speedy striker.