Andrews: Keep believing.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF). Scottish-based defender Marvin Andrews will continue to “keep believing” in this country’s chances of qualifying for South Africa 2010 with five matches left in the campaign starting with the August 12 encounter at home to El Salvador .
The former Glasgow Rangers man returns to Scotland next week where he is expected to make a decision on his club career but while his intentions are to get that out of the way, he continues to keep focused on the bigger picture which is getting to the 2010 World Cup Finals.
Andrews started the now famous catch phrase at Glasgow Rangers “Keep believing” during their 2004-2005 season in which they went on to win the Scottish Premier League title. Now he’s hoping for a similar ending with T&T’s qualification chances for South Africa.
“Once we keep believing and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ it’s still possible we can still qualify, we still have five games to go. Yes we know it’s not going to be easy but nothing good in life comes easy. We will give it our all and with God’s help you never know what can happen. I really believe we have a chance of qualifying. We just had to work harder and eradicate the mistakes and move on to the other games starting against El Salvador,” Andrews told TTFF Media.
He said the fact that T&T were close to achieving results against the table toppers Costa Rica and Mexico at the Estadio Azteca was proof that the team has made positive stride over the past few weeks under head coach Russell Latapy.
“It shows the progress we have made and credit to the manager. He had the team for a very short space of time. We can still gel better and this takes time. We showed in spells against Costa Rica and against Mexico at the Azteca where we’ve been beaten badly in the past, that we are capable of good things. It’s a lot to work with for the last five games.”
“The next game at home is even more crucial than the last home game against Costa Rica. These are the times where the bigger than battle ... the sweeter the victory is. With the caliber of players we have especially with the young ones we have coming through, I really believe we can pull it off,” he added.
The ex-Livingston defender said it was important that Latapy gets the team and the public to continue rallying behind him.
“It’s important that he gets the support. He’s done it at every level under his playing time and now he’s in a different situation being the head coach and not being out on the park performing his tricks. He has to be given the chance to maintain what he has already built. He’s getting a good response from the players and this needs to be continued. It’s critical that Russell Latapy is given every opportunity to carry the team forward.”
Andrews added that he has gotten the players to respond to him.
“Definitely he has gotten the players to play for him. He’s been a player before and know what players are like and what they can be like. He’s competed at the highest level and he was there at the 2006 World Cup so he knows what it takes to reach that goal and to fulfill our dreams as players. The disappointing is that we have given up soft goals. We have made mistakes at crucial points. But from the commitment that the manager is getting from the players… he’s getting them to fight for him and for the country then it’s a very positive aspect of our football and I don’t see any reason why we can’t make a dramatic comeback in the final five matches and make it to South Africa,” Andrews concluded.
View Marvin's interview
