Tivoli’s progress impresses ‘Admiral’ Bailey
Tivoli Gardens Technical Director Glendon “Admiral” Bailey was surprised by the margin of his team’s victory over Molynes United on Monday as they earned a 3-1 win and three crucial points in pursuit of play-off football.
“If I told you that we would have beaten Molynes three goals to one I would be telling a lie, but I knew that we would have come here and given a good account of ourselves,” he said after the win.
Tivoli Gardens ended match week 18 in sixth place on 25 points, one above Harbour View who are on 24 points, with the nearest challenger to their top six face-off being Humble Lion on 18 points.
For Bailey, the results have improved because players are now executing.
“We are finally getting the players to play the way we want them to play. We changed the training methods somewhat and it is paying dividends.
“I am really, really impressed with how we played. We played a very compact game, our transition was very good from defence to attack, from attack to defence and we moved the ball very well.
“We shared the ball, we played with a lot of energy. For the 90+ minutes, we pressed Molynes right through and I am very impressed with what I saw,” he said.
A major blot on the performance on Monday was the red card picked up by defender Odean Pennicoke in added time, but despite the disappointment Bailey believes that his squad will be able to cope.
“We have four tough games remaining, so we have to be ready for that. I am a bit disappointed that we lost Pennicoke to that red card, because he is one of our better defenders, but we have quality players who can step in and get the job done and we also have returning our captain, Barrington Pryce, so we have replacements,” he reasoned.
Tivoli are back in the top six with the win, but Bailey is not getting carried away.
“The team is now upbeat, let’s hope that this is the beginning of where we want to be heading into the play-offs. We are just one point ahead of Harbour View with this win, so it’s just one foot in.
“We have to continue to be consistent, continue to play like we did (Monday) and we will be fine, but I am very pleased with the direction in which we are going,” he said.