“They had to dig deep today and in digging deep they came out good.”

Words from Cavalier FC assistant coach David Lalor as a vital 1-0 by his team over reigning champions Portmore United on Friday took them from just outside the playoff positions, to third in the league and in control of their own destiny with a single game to go in the regular season of the Jamaica Premier League.

Lalor pointed to how valuable the win was in ensuring that his team remained in the discussion in the tail-end of the season.

“We are pleased with the three points. We needed it to go into the playoff (position). We want to continue to showcase the youngsters, so the longer we stay in the (hunt) the better for us to have the opportunity to continue to showcase them.”

Cavalier are not among the teams that will need other results to go their way even if they win on the final match day of the season and for that Lalor is extremely grateful.

“There is another game left. We want to ensure that at the end of the day our fate is in our own hands by what we do next week.”

Having gone down to a 3-2 score line the week before against Mount Pleasant FA, Lalor said the main task during the course of the week, leading up to the game was refocusing the players.

“For us, it was to get the youngsters focused to play some serious football.”

Forced to replace their goal scorer Ronaldo Webster with a third of the game left to play, Lalor was pleased with the courage shown by his team to grin out the win.

“It took away from our attacking force with Webster being injured. It was a forced change, so at the end of the day, we had to dig deep and find the reserve to come out with a victory.”

Even as the regular season comes to an end, Lalor believes that there is still room for improvement which they want to work on as soon as playoff football is secured.

“We are not at our best. We still believe that we could have done better. There is more for is to do so at the end of the day we will try to keep improving. Come next week we hope to have at least reached a place where we are comfortable to try to etch out that victory.

“Once we make the playoffs, then there are a lot of things to fix and we will try to fix them, one day at a time.”

 Cavalier face Vere United who have the meanest defence in the league in their final regular season game on match week 11.

– Dwayne Richards