Ardenne’s football team rebuilding, says coach
LLOYD Terrelonge admitted that the game plan against champions Kingston College (KC) was to try to frustrate the boys from North Street, in the hopes of securing a draw and earning their first point of the season during their Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/Digicel Manning Cup match on Thursday.
After receiving a six-nil mauling from the other team from North Street, St George’s College (STGC), at Sabina Park on the opening day of the season, it was a matter of damage control for Terrelonge when they welcomed the champions to Ardenne.
The plan worked for the first 20 minutes but they were undone by the irrepressible Dujuan Richards whose thunderbolt of a shot flew past Chibueze Nwokocha and rippled the back of the net.
A second-half header from Richards ensured KC won comfortably but a 0-2 loss was way better for the boys in yellow and blue to absorb — given some had anticipated a heavy defeat.
Terrelonge admitted that his players, who conceded all six goals in the first half against STGC, were overawed under lights at Sabina Park.
He is hoping things will get better as the season progresses.
“Our team is a young team. The first match, we just put that behind us because the occasion got to our players,” he said.
“In the game [on Thursday] we said we weren’t going to let KC score any goal, but unfortunately, they scored two goals. We were trying to stick to the game plan by marking out some players, but KC have so much arsenal. We tried to mark out their playmaker. It worked for a good time, but KC is a good team.
“We lost two-nil but we will go to the drawing board and come back again,” he said.
With age on the side of most of the players, this season is the beginning of a long-term project at Ardenne, Terrelonge explained.
“We have a young team. Most of them are in grade nine and grade ten — especially the back line — so they have three and four years to go.
“We didn’t play any Manning Cup for two years so the team is rebuilding, so next year you can look for better things from Ardenne,” he declared.
Ardenne will next head to Calabar High on Wednesday, hoping to secure their first point of the season.
— Dwayne Richards
