Victoria Kings aiming to make Elite League Elimination match a ‘dogfight’
With a place in the upcoming season of the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) Elite League (Season Six) at stake, 9th place finishers in the last season, Victoria Kings Football Club will be fighting tooth and nail to stay up in the top tier of Guyana’s club football.
Standing in their way are the formidable Slingerz Football Club, an old nemesis of the Victoria Kings. That elimination encounter is slated for tomorrow night (January 14) at the Ministry of Education Ground on Carifesta Avenue.
Stabroek Sport had an exclusive interview with Team Manager and acting Coach of the Victoria Kings, Calvin Marks who declared that his side will be heading into Sunday’s encounter without fear and full of confidence.
To this end, he asserted; “Slingerz are a good team but we are confident, we are in the rebuilding phase, we lost a lot of guys to migration and some of the senior ones retired. Nevertheless, we will be fearless in our game approach.”
“Football is played on the night, who plays the better game and who makes the fewest mistakes can win. It’s not going to be easy for us but it’s not going to be easy for Slingerz either, it will be a dogfight”.
Quizzed on where the fearlessness comes from, Marks said that it is the exuberance of youth as his side is made up of youngsters. However, the Victoria Kings are facing a severe handicap, the absence of some of their more experienced and best players.
“We have a young squad, most of them born between 1998-2003. We even have players as young as 16. We are missing quite a few senior players but I’m confident in the youngsters who will step up. We are missing Sahib Berkshire, one of our best midfielders.
We’re missing our experienced players, Berkshire was playing excellently before his departure, we’re hoping we can stay up. The youths are eager to play, they’re still playing the game and they’re confident, once we play together, we can win”.
“We are confident overall, we believe we can upset them. We have support and we will back that up, we have a rich football culture and we intend to dig deep” Marks declared.
Touching on preparations ahead of tomorrow’s match, Marks revealed; “We have been training on finishing mostly, due to the fact that we couldn’t finish well in the Elite League last season.
Due to inexperience we were wasteful in front of goal. Come Sunday, Kemroy Alfred is one to watch as our frontline striker, he will have the responsibility of leading the attack while Ekroy Holder will be his twin striker, they are young strikers but experienced nevertheless”.
The outcome of tomorrow night’s match between Slingerz and Victoria Kings will determine which team will claim the highly sought-after second berth in the Elite League which starts in February.
The showdown will take place at 7:30 pm.
Last Sunday, Monedderlust of the Berbice Football Association secured a 1-0 victory over Slingerz in the GFF Elite League Promotion Playoff final, earning automatic promotion to the Elite League.
The elimination match gives Slingerz a renewed opportunity to return to the Elite League, and the struggling Victoria Kings, who finished second to last in Elite League Season Five, a crucial chance to retain their spot as an Elite League team.