DONOVAN Duckie believes his hometown club Highgate United will stave-off relegation from the Red Stripe Premier League once they can resolve their off-the-field issues.

The St Mary newcomers are having a typical premiership campaign for a promoted side — winning four, drawing nine and losing eight of their 21 games played so far.

They currently share the relegation places with Village United but are level on points with 10-placed Reno who have a superior goal difference.

“They’ve been winning, losing and drawing a lot, which is not too consistent, but I know they can be a very dangerous team,” said Duckie, who guided two eastern Jamaica teams — Star Cosmos and St Georges SC — to the Premier League.

“For them to stay in the league it’s really dependent on how soon they can sort out some of the backroom issues that are affecting them on the field,” Duckie asserted.

Highgate’s problems have been well documented since qualifying for the island’s top league seven months ago, with their inability to find a suitable venue in their parish forcing them to play their home games at Lynch Park in neighbouring Portland.

Unfortunately, their failure to attract support from St Mary’s commercial district is by no means unique in the Eastern Confederation, with Star Cosmos, Benfica and St Georges previously falling by the wayside because of similar problems.

The former national youth coach added: “They have a really good coach in Michael Smith… and they also have a lot of quality players.

“They lost Romeo (Parkes) to Tivoli Gardens in the transfer window and it will definitely affect them because he’s a feared striker around the league, but I think they can find able replacement because they definitely have quality.

“But talent can only take you so far, so once they can get some financial support soon, everything will fall into place,” the St Mary native said.

Duckie is not the first coach to voice his concern about the financial problems facing teams in the east. Braxton Hyre, a former Highgate and St Georges tactician, expressed the same sentiments as he spoke to this reporter earlier in the season.

“You have to remember that these players have families to support, so if they are not getting (monetary gains) they won’t really be motivated,” said Hyre, then the coach of Highgate.

“It’s really a volatile region where finance is concerned,” added the coach, who guided St Georges to their first ever End-of-First-Round Final and a fourth-place finish in the 2009/10 season.

“Before us there were Star Cosmos, St Georges and Benfica and it was the same cry. It’s not about the quality of the players or the coaches on that side of the island; it’s about being able to get financial support,” said Hyre.

Duckie, in the meantime, has issued a plea for corporate St Mary to lend a helping hand to football in the parish.

“Most of the outstanding teams in the Premier League are the ones with good organisation and financial support, so I’m appealing to the business community in St Mary to come out and support them because this is a positive step for the parish. It’s something that we can be proud of,” said the Waterhouse coach.

“You also see in other parishes where the political representatives have done a lot. Mike Henry has done a lot for Humble Lion, Omar Davies at Arnett Gardens and Edward Seaga at Tivoli, so the members of parliament in St Mary must now look at this as another avenue to help the youths.

“You might have 11 players on a team, but they are impacting the lives of many,” Duckie added.