ALTHOUGH admitting that he will need time, new Portmore United Head Coach Davion Ferguson says he intends to restore the club’s success at the local and regional levels.

Ferguson was unveiled as a replacement for Philip Williams last week, after an interview process with the club’s new ownership group, United Sports Group, and Garwin Tulloch.

He recently left his role at Mount Pleasant Football Academy where he served as assistant coach to Theodore Whitmore.

Ferguson, who is also the Jamaica College under-19 head coach and former national under-17 assistant coach, says he’s hoping to make a positive mark at Portmore.

“This is a club that has won seven premier league titles in our country. And they’re the winningest club in our top flight league in Jamaica and they’ve also had regional success, so they’re not new to winning,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“They understand the processes for us to complete this mission, so they having that experience is good but my experience at other institutions prepared me to understand it’s about getting everybody to be on one page, having one common objective, and everybody working together to achieve that.”

While they do boast the most top flight trophies, Portmore’s last league title success came in the 2018-19 season. Last season they made the play-offs for the first time since their championship run, but fell to Arnett Gardens in the quarter-finals.

Ferguson, though, believes with some adjustments the squad can compete for the title.

“I’ve seen them last season and they were strong,” he said. “They had a good crop of youngsters, and experienced players sprinkled around the youngsters, and I think overall they had a good set of players who, in my mind, have enough quality to really deliver in our top flight. So, it’s about trying to keep the core of what we have and try to add pieces in positions we need to strengthen.”

Ferguson has been a part of Jamaica Premier League (JPL) title-winning staff and has also won two Manning Cups with Jamaica College.

He says everyone at the club will have to work together as he looks to bring silverware back to Portmore.

“To achieve anything substantial, it’s all about processes,” he said, “so, for me, it’s to ensure we implement these processes and stick to them. We’ll try as best as possible to tick them off as we go along, both on and off the pitch, as to how we want to play, how we want to conduct ourselves, and ultimately how we want to position ourselves as a club — not just locally but regionally.

“I think it’s a holistic plan. It will take time, for sure, but what is important is everybody is on board and on the same page in terms of where we are now — being objective about it, and where we need to be, and how we can get there. That’s the process I will lead; that’s the process I have to get everybody to buy into. It will be a process, in different phases over time, that we must stick to for us to gain sustainable growth and results.”

The 2024-25 season of the JPL is set to kick off in September.