KINGSTON, Jamaica — According to new head coach of Vere United, Donovan Duckie, participation in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) is a long-term project.

Duckie, who took over shortly before the start of the season, says he is beginning with a clean slate with an aim to dominate the league in years to come.

“I am not so concerned with the points,” he said after securing a 1-0 win over champions Portmore United on Wednesday.

“It’s a long-term project. We have started from scratch. We got in a few experienced players, our squad has a lot of inexperienced players also.

“I am concerned about us doing the right things. We are trying to build a project that will not only win the premier league, but will be consistent and create dominance.”

The former National Under-23 coach says it took a great tactical effort on the part of his team to take down the defending champions Portmore United which moved them up to four points following a 0-0 draw with Molynes United in their opening game of the season.

“It’s a continuation of last week. I am having a terrible time knowing that we just had three weeks preseason, but it’s a new normal, we are professionals, we cannot complain. But in order to play Portmore United, we had to be very tactical.

“We gave up some things, we allowed them to do some things. They moved the ball quickly, so it forced us back in a low block. We started in a higher block, but we couldn’t cope because of their fitness level.

“They are much, much stronger than us, they have been training for months. So, what we had to do is be smart and we wanted to catch them in transition. It happened a few times and we definitely got the go-ahead goal. Full credit to the guys,” he said.

Duckie said that his team was hanging on by the end of the game, as the conditions took a toll on his players.

“In the last, we had to defend well. They threw everything at us. We could have gotten the second goal if we were mindful of getting the second goal, but I think the conditions took a toll on us.

“My main concern now is…we started to lose players. Two tackles, two injuries and they can be dangerous injuries going forward and the squad is not a deep squad.”

The start however, has put a smile on the face of the Vere head coach.

“It’s a wonderful start. It’s four points in the bag. I am surprised we have four points. Three weeks of preparation, the most we had was some physical and we itemised the areas and we did a lot of tactical work. We have not done one third of what we wanted to do.”

He is calling on his players to continue to surprise both him and themselves throughout the course of the season.

“In everything that you are doing, you have to set targets, team goals, team objectives and our objective is never to win a game. It’s to do the things correctly and let us surprise ourselves.”

With a number of games being played in the mid-afternoon sun most days, Duckie says that recovery will be just as important as playing the games themselves.

“Normally the minimum time that you have is six to seven weeks preseason. I’ve never done this before. We played one practice game leading up to the competition, so it’s a new way for us. Now we have to focus more on recovery.

“Recovery is not just stretching to get rid of lactic acid, I think nutrition is also going to be very important for us going forward,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Duckie explained why his team has been lucky so far.

“The element of luck is created by hard work and we are working hard,” he said.

Duckie may need more of that “luck” when Vere comes up against his former club, Waterhouse in their next assignment on Monday.

Dwayne Richards