Drummond juggles Manning’s and Reno
Godfrey Drummond has been getting mixed returns in his job as a coach. At the schoolboy football level, his team, the Manning’s School, has been having a fair in the ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup. But in the national Red Stripe Premier League, his other side, FC Reno, is struggling.
Manning’s on Saturday dismissed Zone D leaders Little London High 3-0 to climb into second spot in the daCosta Cup. On the other hand, Reno suffered their third defeat in as many games, going down 0-2 on Sunday to Arnett Gardens FC. They are at the bottom of the 12-team table.
Drummond, who is also a physical education teacher at Manning’s, said he get good support with the schoolboys.
“I would be lying if I say it’s not a challenge but just have to manage the situation as best as possible. I have a good staff at Manning’s and what I’ll do is set my training sessions so they don’t clash with each other,” Drummond said.
“As it relates to me personally, it does not affect me because I’m actually an organised person. I want to get the best from both sets of players, though I’ve never done it before. In 2013 when I lead Reno back to the Premier League, I resigned as coach because of a conflict of interest in terms of clashes, and I was not able to devote enough time to both entities. But now, with the support staff at Manning’s, things can still go on in my absence,” he told the WESTERN STAR.
Meanwhile, Drummond blames poor recruiting in the summer for Reno’s poor start.
“I came at Reno in maybe the last two weeks ... I was not the one who supervised the preseason. One of the things is that we made some selection that was not up to standard. But once we can adjust the bad attitude and poor commitment level, I think the team can only rise,” Drummond said.
“Manning’s, on the other hand, we are doing fairly well. We are just trying to make it to the interzone round, that is our focus here,” he added.