The Guyana men’s national hockey team closed off their three-match CAC warm-up series against Trinidad and Tobago with another defeat on Sunday.
The match which was played at the National Hockey Centre in Tacarigua saw the South Americans finally getting on the scorecard, losing 2-5 to hand the host a 3-0 series win.
Kristian Emmanuel was the man who opened the scoring for Trinidad in the 7th minute to leave Guyana trailing early on.
Three minutes later Joel Daniel unleashed a powerful reverse shot past Medroy Scotland to double Trinidad’s lead. Guyana made it 1-2 when Captain Robert France tapped in the easiest of finishes after a blistering Jamarj Assanah counter attack.
Trinidad then found the back of the upright for the third time when Shaquille Daniel scored in the 38th minute to restore Trinidad’s two-goal lead, making it 3-1, scoring via a penalty corner.
Five minutes later, Marcus James made it 4-1 with his lone strike of the night. Guyana was awarded a penalty stroke as the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter, when Assanah was brought down by Trinidadian goalkeeper Kwasi Emmanuel, after being released by an Aroydy Branford aerial.
Branford converted the stroke to give the Guyanese some momentum heading into the final quarter. However, in the first minute of the 4th quarter, Shaquille Daniel squashed all hopes of a comeback by pouncing onto a defensive error to seal the victory 5-2, the eventual score at the end of the final whistle.
Meanwhile, Coach Robert Fernandes, commenting on his team’s three-match outing, indicated that while the overall results did not read in favor of the locals, some of his objectives were achieved.
“I am pleased with the boy’s progress over this series. It always takes us some time to adjust to the difference in the speed of the game on artificial turf compared to grass, however, despite the score lines we achieved our main objectives for this tour,” Fernandes indicated.
He added: “Those [matches] were to see how the players performed under pressure while having the intelligence and tactical flexibility to adjust to different systems and combinations of personnel.
“We now have more clarity on who will be our 16 for Colombia and how we will approach the next four weeks of training for the CAC games, to address our shortcomings.”
