LIME Hall’s Head Coach Vanie Clarke admits that staying in the Wray and Nephew Jamaica Premier League (JPL) will be a tough task but said they will continue to fight following the 0-4 drubbing by leaders Cavalier on Sunday.

Despite occupying the league’s lowest position, the St Ann-based club were on a high after picking up their first win of the season a week ago against fellow newcomers Treasure Beach.

However, they were quickly sent back down to earth at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Sunday. Goals from Cavalier’s Jalmaro Calvin (22nd minute), Captain Gadail Irving (73rd), Shaneil Thomas (79th), and Dwayne “Busy” Atkinson (81st) inflicted Lime Hall’s 13th defeat of the campaign.

Lime Hall looked second-best throughout and failed to register a single shot on target. While acknowledging his opponent’s quality, Clarke was disappointed in his team’s performance.

“Cavalier are a very good team, young players, but they have been schooled in what they want to do and [they] do it well. We were without a couple of our better players at left back and our best midfielder was out today.

“Despite the confidence coming from last week, to lose two of our best players and coming up against Cavalier, it was always going to be difficult. Having said that, we could have applied ourselves much better today. We were unsure of what we wanted to do; I thought there were long stretches of the game when we didn’t apply ourselves and I think that’s where we let down ourselves, for most part,” Clarke told the
Jamaica Observer.

Lime Hall sit bottom of the 14-team standings on seven points, with eight games to go. They have matches against champions Mount Pleasant Academy, title challengers Tivoli Gardens, and play-off contenders Arnett Gardens to come.

However Clarke, who joined the club midway the season, believes they can overturn their seemingly impossible situation.

“I think that to go on any sort of winning streak is going to be tough, given what we have and given what we know is happening with the players’ domain, but I feel that we have to keep working.

“It was never going to be easy. There are a number of things that need to be managed more effectively but we keep fighting, we keep trying. We never thought it was going to be easy, we never thought staying in the league was going to be comfortable — it was always going to be hard work. Nothing has changed other than we have less games. We just have to win, but finding those wins have been elusive for us,” he said.

The Rudolph Speid-coached Cavalier, on the other hand, continue their impressive run by registering their ninth win in as many games, to go 11 games unbeaten and remain top of the table with 40 points.

— Daniel Blake