T&TEC coach faults League fixtures for runner-up finish
ttproleague.comA distraught T&TEC FC head coach Dexter Cyrus had one wish following his team’s 2-3 defeat against Caledonia AIA of Morvant-Laventille in the final match of the Digicel Pro League Championship last month, and that was “not to play back to back matches within a space of three days”.
The defeat saw the ‘Electric Boys’ slipped for a second position finish in the 2011-12 season after needing just a point at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium to lift the title on debut, while eventual champions W Connection(40 points) hammered Police FC 8-1 at the Ato Boldon Stadium to overtake T&TEC(39 points) by a point.
“What I wished to do differently was, not to play two games in forty-eight hours,” said a watery-eyed Cyrus at the Mannie Rammjohn Stadium.
“It was an uphill task for the players not to mention the safety, but nevertheless we had to play the game and its official that we are second.”
Two days prior to the Thursday 29 March match-day, T&TEC had to play a rescheduled Round One match against Police FC and registered a healthy 6-1 victory. But it seems the more that comfortable win worked against the ‘Electric Boys’ as the battered Police FC outfit went on to suffer the 8-1 mauling against Connection.
“I thought our guys did as much as they could have done (in the final League match against Caledonia) having played a game on Tuesday,” continued Cyrus.
“I always thought that the end of the game was going to be difficult in the last thirty minutes because of the fact that we played forty-eight hours before, and I’m very disappointed in the League.
But nevertheless we were in the lead and some ‘schoolboy’ mistakes gifted two goals to Caledonia. I thought when (Caledonia) got the equalizer the game changed although we were in total control. I’m still proud of our guys. We actually took the League down to the last game and congratulations to W Connection.”
Although praising the efforts of his charges, Cyrus who has done remarkably well this season despite finishing second in the First Citizens Cup and Toyota Classic knockouts this season and now the League Championship in only his first season in the Trinidad and Tobago top flight league explained that he feels “gutted”.
“I feel disappointed because it’s a situation where we are third time unlucky. We have been to two finals and came second, now we are second in the League. I feel gutted actually,” said the former Trinidad and Tobago international.
The T&TEC coach would have two more shots at lifting silverware this season with the Lucozade Sport Goal Shield (April) and Digicel Pro Bowl (May) knockouts.
