“So far so good, but we have a job to do still, which is to win on January 1,” exclaimed Charles ‘Lilly’ Pollard, coach of the Slingerz Football Club who will take on Santos in the finals of the third Georgetown Football Association (GFA) Banks Beer Knock out tournament on New Year’s Day (tomorrow).
Slingerz got the better of Western Tigers 1 – 0 while Santos eased past Guyana Defence Force (GDF) 2 – 1 in a dramatic twist of events in the semi-finals on Sunday night.
From the initial stages, Slingerz FC was always a tournament favourite and thus far, they’ve lived up to
those expectations and the team is now one game away from claiming the competition’s $4M first prize.
However, football pundits were hoping to see the ‘West Side’ team come up against Alpha `The Hammer’ United, but fate had it planned otherwise as Alpha was ousted by the GDF.
Santos was not even considered by many as a team capable of reaching the final but their steady improved play has caught the attention of Pollard.
“You can’t take a team like that for granted because they have been playing well and improving in each game. We (Slingerz) will not be thinking that it’s a walk over for us because they didn’t buy their way through the tournament, they played,” said the former national captain.
Pollard, once Guyana’s most dependable defender, was keen to point out that Santos difference makers are national goalkeeper Richard Reynolds and the club’s striker from Suriname Christoff Wensly.
Asked if he was comfortable with how his team was playing, Pollard said:”Right now our team has like a one million coaches, but it’s all good because they (the fans) are showing interest in the team. But at the end of the day, it’s up to me and my coaching staff to put the best possible team on the pitch.”
He added: “We started off a little slowly but I think it was because we did not play competitive football for like over two months and we’re not in the Premier League. But I like the way the team is playing right now. All the guys are focused and are committing themselves to the team and want to win this tournament for a number of reasons.”
This is Slingerz’s first time participating in the tournament.
