MERRON Gordon has been exposed to the highest level of football in the region through his coaching stint with the Reggae Boyz and is now aiming to use that experience to elevate Spanish Town Police FC and maintain their place in the Wray & Nephew Jamaica Premier League (JPL).

Gordon, who has spent the last four years as the national assistant coach, was confirmed as Spanish Town Police’s technical director over the weekend.

He had previously served as consultant to St Catherine Division One club Old Harbour United. However, following Old Harbour’s takeover of the JPL club, Gordon was convinced by owner Jabarie Baker to be part of the new set-up.

“I just started a new business about three months ago and it’s taking up a lot of my time,” Gordon told the Jamaica Observer. “I’m also a full-time teacher so I said to help with the programme like that, technically, you know I can. But to be like the head coach for now, I told him that right now wouldn’t be a good time for me also knowing I still have the national duties.

“But I think the vision that the president has — even from just talking to him at major league — it’s something that aligns with my philosophy, and how I think, and how I see football where[by] we want to have a youthful team, sell players to give them a better opportunity to go abroad to make some money out of football, and also develop a good core here locally to compete at a high level.”

Along with his Reggae Boyz role Gordon has had several coaching stints over the last decade, working with the Reggae Girlz, the national under-17 and under-23 teams, at club level with Humble Lion and Sporting Central Academy, and in schoolboy football with former daCosta Cup champions Garvey Maceo.

Gordon says he’s equipped to raise the standards of Spanish Town Police, who are six months into their professional journey.

“The first thing I’m focusing on is structure – structure in the club itself and also structure [in] the technical department,” he said. “With the experience that I’ve gained over the years — I’ve worked with a lot of top coaches, both locally and abroad — I’ve learned so much, and I want to pass on those information on the technical side.

“I’ve learned a lot administratively from people like Vin Blaine, who also taught me things technically; Roy Simpson, who was interim general secretary [at the Jamaica Football Federation] and the team manager for the Reggae Boyz. I’ve learned a lot from him administratively and things that I can use over the years, to impart knowledge and to just guide this team to a more professional state as much as possible that I can. I’ll also be hands-on to help technically when I can — if there’s a situation that the coach wants me to take part in, I will make myself available. I won’t enforce myself on him but, at the same time, I will give advice and try my best to guide the process [so that it runs] as smooth[ly] as possible.”

Spanish Town Police’s debut season in the JPL hasn’t started well as they now sit bottom of the table with just eight points after 14 games, five points adrift of safety. However, their only two wins have come within the last three games.

Since the league expanded to 14 teams in the 2022-23 season, Phoenix Chapelton Maroons are the only newly promoted club to have avoided relegation, having done so last season.

Gordon knows it will be an uphill task to avoid relegation but is confident they can turn things around.

“As I was saying to the technical staff, the teams that are in the bottom six of the table are the teams that we should really concentrate on. We’re not trying to win the league. We’re not trying to go to the finals right now. We’re just trying to maintain a spot in the league,” he said.

“The good thing is that the last game they played, they got three points and a clean sheet, which is important. We didn’t play [on Sunday] because of a waterlogged field, which was a blessing in disguise so we can do some work with them this week going into the weekend. So, the most important thing for us right now is to have our own little league within the league. The bottom six can concentrate on them and trying to get as much points as we can from there, and if we can steal a few from the top six it’s also a bonus.”

Spanish Town Police take on play-off contenders Tivoli Gardens on Monday before battling title-chasing Portmore United.