Price backs veterans
Humble Lion, a team with a large core of seasoned veterans, went out at the quarterfinal stage of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) on Monday after a valiant 4-3 loss on aggregate to Harbour View but coach Andrew Price has no plans to throw out his over 30-year-old players.
Price says his senior players, which include the likes of Xavian
Virgo (37), Gregory Lewis (35), Andre Clennon (33), Keneil Hyde (33), Andrew Vanzie (32), Ricardo Campbell (33), Levaughn Williams (33), Jermaine Christian (34) and Dacha Satchwell (30), will stay on to help the youngsters at the club make the transition to the senior level.
Young players such as Javon Smith, Lorenzo Lewin , Karim Bryan, Ricko Edwards, Shamarie Dallas, Mark Rodney Nathan Thomas and goalkeeper Prince Daniel-Smith, all under 25 years old, have grown and are establishing themselves and Price believes it’s important they have the seniors to help guide them through.
“We have a good set of talented youths like Karim Bryan, and Javon Smith. These are youngsters we are grooming with the experienced players. Mark Rodney had a good game again (on Monday) but what we are really asking the older players is to guide them so we can do better next year,” he stated. He admitted that not all the veterans might be there next season but he expects most of them to remain.
“The fact of the matter is they (veterans) are needed to guide the youngsters. You cannot just throw the youngsters out in the deep end. They need guidance. The youngsters really did well. They put in a good shift and that is how they are going to learn, on the job. But the only way for them to learn is to give them opportunities to play,” Price said. He pointed out that the team has shown it can compete with the big boys, and all they need now is a quality striker who can give them goals consistently.
“We have to find some proven goalscorers. We haven’t been scoring the chances that we have been getting.
“We have to work on finding someone who can get the ball in the net regularly. Even the players that scored today (Monday), two of them haven’t scored since the first round. They came trumps but we got a lot of opportunities that could have taken Harbour View out of the game. So I am disappointed with the result but I must credit the team for the way they played all season.” the Humble Lion coach said. livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com