Fresh off an unbeaten campaign in the recently concluded West Demerara Football Association Senior Men’s League, Slingerz FC coach Charles ‘Lily’ Pollard stated that the primary objective is to secure a berth in the Guyana Football Federation Elite League.
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to the former Golden Jaguars international, “The main objective at this point is the GFF Elite League. We had to go through the WDFA system, and we had to win the league to get a chance to play in the playoffs. We did fairly well; we won all our games and didn’t concede. Our intention is the Elite League.”
The Vergenoegen outfit concluded the one-round tournament with a perfect record of eight wins in as many outings, with their next best challenger, Uitvlugt, ending on 19 points. Such was their dominance that Slingerz FC recorded an astonishing 57 goals during this period, which equates to 7.125 conversions per match. The next best-scoring outfit was Eagles, with 21 goals. Even more striking was the fact that Slingerz scored more than half of the total goals recorded by the other nine teams, which was 102. Their dominance also extended to the defensive end, with an equally impressive zero concessions, which sums up in total the overall dominance of their campaign.
Probed if the concluded tournament provided the ideal level of preparation for the Elite League playoff, Pollard conceded, “I don’t think that it provided the ideal preparation, but we could only play and beat who is in front of us. We know that we are a very good unit and were supposed to be in the Elite League from the beginning, but the authorities have their own reasoning. We had to go through the league and didn’t have a choice, but we are here now and ready for the playoff.”
He further said, “The teams are really not up to our standard, but we wanted to play a certain way and entertain, and we probably got about 40% of what we wanted from the boys. There is still a lot of work to be done; we need to get fitter, but as the games go by, match time is important. We are a quality side, and we will bring something different to the table in the playoffs and Elite League.”
Asked about the team’s principal aim, Pollard disclosed, “We want to be a force in the Caribbean, but it will take a lot of work, and we are willing to take it step by step, hoping to achieve that in a couple of years.”
