Downtrodden Ardenne seek lift with season-ending victory
WITH no possibility of making it to the second round of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/Digicel Manning Cup football competition, head coach of the Ardenne High School football team Lloyd Terrelonge says his players will not bow out of the tournament without at least one win on the board.
Ardenne slumped to their sixth-consecutive defeat on Friday when they went down 0-9 to tournament favourites and defending champions Kingston College (KC) in Group A action at Stadium East.
“We don’t really feel bad about losing our first six games as we know that we are going to win one out of the 10 games we are scheduled to play in the group stages. We are going to win and we are working on it,” Terrelonge told the Jamaica Observer.
“The guys are down right now due to this loss but we are going to lift them up and come back better. The guys are going to get back,” he insisted.
Ardenne started the game on the back foot when KC’s Nashordo Gibbs found the back of the net in the 11th minute. Romario Campbell doubled the lead for KC with a 34th-minute strike before Akeem Weir sent the defending champions into the first-half break 3-0 up, courtesy of a 45+ minute goal. Ardenne, however, had a couple of attempts of their own but didn’t really trouble Malique Williams in goal for KC.
Ardenne conceded six more goals in the second half, to KC’s Gibbs (52nd minute); Jaheem Johnson (62nd minute); Damaine Smith (68th minute); Mario Swaby (81st); and Dujuan Richards (89th and 90+ minutes).
“We didn’t perform as well as how we did in the first game against them [KC]; we got some early injuries and that really changed our game plan. We came here to mark out the Dujuan Richards and Samuels Shakes but because we got two early injuries we had to change our game plan — and that cost us a little.
“Of course, we came into the match with 13 injured players — nine of our starting players were injured — but we did have to just play and go. We are concerned about the injuries, yes, but we have two people that are working on them.
“We are going to do some rehabilitation on Sunday [today]. I don’t know if everyone will be ready to go for our next match,” Terrelonge disclosed.
— Ruddy Allen
