Donovan Duckie and Waterhouse FC showed that it was no fluke that they had got themselves into the top six of the Red Stripe Premier League at the end of the second round when they began the third round with a workman-like 1-0 win over The University of the West Indies (UWI) at the Drewsland Stadium on Monday night.

Having been bumped out of the top six because their final game of round two got rescheduled, Waterhouse promptly climbed back into the play-off position when they took all three points off a determined UWI team. The win moves them up into fifth position, a place they have not been in almost three years.

Where the club now finds itself may be above the expectations of club officials, but it is right on schedule for coach Duckie.

“They asked me to save the club from relegation when I came in because they have been battling that for almost two and a half years. When I took the job I told them that what I wanted to do wasn’t to save the club from relegation, but try to create a solid foundation so they would be very competitive in the league,” he revealed.

The club has been on a seven-game unbeaten streak, moving away from the relegation zone and putting themselves in contention for a place in the play-offs come May. The very savvy coach understands that expectations will increase as a result of the recent successes.

“In anything you have the short-, medium- and long-term goals. Their short term goals now might be to win the league because they see that they are being very competitive. The expectations of the fans will grow, the expectations of us will grow, but realistically we are just thinking about doing the right things over and over; not only to win, but we are trying to create dominance so in the future this team might be able to win three or four titles in consecutive seasons.”

Since coming in as head coach late last year, the former army man has made an assessment of the players that he has, and has gone against the wishes of many by keeping a number of them that were reputed to be “not good enough”. Since deciding on who to keep and who to let go during the transfer window, Duckie has skilfully recruited players he thinks will put Waterhouse over the top.

“We established a clear philosophy of how we want to operate. Like in any business you have standard operating systems, we have our philosophy. We have established our system of play, so we are looking for certain characteristics of players to fit so that we can become a First-World team. We have hand-picked Allan Ottey, we have hand-picked Carlos Barrett, we have hand-picked Cardel Benbow and a few other players that we think can add something to the squad,” he explained.

Happy with what he now has, where the club is now and the level of understanding established throughout the organisation, the 42-year-old is ready to take Waterhouse to the next level in the Red Stripe Premier League.

“Over 25 players were knocking on the door. We did not select them because we wanted to build on what we have here and I think we are moving in the right direction, so with more work, more games, I think definitely they will gel more and we will definitely come to the fore.”

The work that Duckie has done over the past few months will be put to the test today as Waterhouse are set to play their first game without him on the sidelines when they take on Montego Bay United in a rescheduled game at WesPow Park starting at 3:00 pm.

Duckie is away on international duty as assistant coach to Theodore Whitmore as the Reggae Boyz will play two games in Turkey. The first will be against a professional Romanian club, CS Gaz Metan Medias on Saturday, before they face South Korea next Tuesday.

— Dwayne Richards