Had Phillip Williams, the head coach of Tivoli Gardens FC, been offered third place in the Jamaica Premier League before the start of the shortened 2020-2021 season, he would have taken it.

With a large number of his senior footballers unavailable at June’s start of the competition, Williams was forced to use a number of young players at that stage of the campaign, giving them valuable experience at the Premier League level.

The club was able to stay within touching distance of the more fancied team in the league, eventually ending the regular season in fourth place to advance to the play-off round.

A few senior players returned at the backend of the campaign to add strength and depth to the squad. They defeated Mount Pleasant FA on penalties in the third-place play-off last Saturday to record their highest placing in the league in many years.

While some people would not have put much store by that game, for Williams their final game of the season allowed him to carry out an assessment of his squad, while getting over a hump that had been plaguing Tivoli Gardens.

“It was a game that we were using to assess some of the youngsters for next season. We were always found wanting when we played against Mount Pleasant and we really looked forward to the game, albeit a third-place play-off, and it was a good test for us,” Williams explained.

Williams summed up the Tivoli Gardens season at the end of the game and was proud of what they had achieved.

He singled out his defence as the greatest area of strength of the teams this season as they conceded only 13 goals from 15 games.

“We were strong in the areas that we have been strong in all season, that is defence. In the midfield we saw some things out there.

“Definitely we need to find persons to fill the gaps up top because most of the games we have been found wanting in front of goal,” he said.

“It was an overall team effort, but Barrington [Pryce] and the entire backline – young [Odean] Pennycooke, Kemar Flemmings, and Shavar [Campbell] – really did well for us all season.

“We had a number of changes in midfield and all of those persons really did well. We started out with young Andre Smith who played five excellent games for us and Dasha came in, in the latter part and also did well,” the Tivoli coach added.

Williams also hailed the team’s leading scorer for his contribution to the cause in the shortened season.

“Up front Devroy Grey led with four goals but, overall, it was a team effort and one that I am proud of — what they have achieved.”

—Dwayne Richards