Vincy Heat ready for WIFA challenges

Dogged by a string of poor results in the recent past, newly appointed senior St Vincent and the Grenadines’ men’s football team head coach Kendale Mercury, plans to change the image of the outfit dubbed Vincy Heat.

Mercury, who has been in the post for the last month, will show his worth, when Vincy Heat contest the Windward Islands Football Association (WIFA) tournament, starting this Thursday, here on home soil, at the Victoria Park.

Looking ahead of the tournament, Mercury is promising the Vincentian football public, that the new-look team will offer something different, as there is that eagerness among them, to represent St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“I am quite confident in the players themselves, even though they are not fully ready… The feeling is, there is the attitude to fight and represent their country,” Mercury related.

He said that his charges are cognisant of the pressure of playing at home, as most of the team are yet to make their debut at the senior level.

“We know a lot of people are going to turn out to see the team, especially in our first match on Thursday, but there is that little comfort in the fact that the players would carry out what they have been taught,” Mercury commented.

Mercury believes that a three-day camp last week at the Technical Centre, would have done a lot for team bonding , as well as some fine-tuning some specific technical and tactical issues.

“What we have seen from the camp, was a 25 percent improvement… We have seen a different side of the players on camp and we are quite satisfied,” the head coach added.

Mercury’s worry is the fact that his charges will be required to play four matches in ten days, with most of them having been fully involved with their respective clubs in the local National Club Championships.

But he is hopeful that with the necessary therapeutic arrangements, the team will endure the rigours of the packed tournament.

The new-look Vincentian outfit will be in action on Thursday from 7 p.m., versus guest team Barbados.

Before that encounter, St Lucia and defending champions Grenada, will meet from 5 p.m.

Then on Saturday, also from 7 p.m., St Vincent and the Grenadines faces St Lucia, with Grenada and Dominica, meeting two hours earlier.

St Vincent and the Grenadines will be off on Monday, but Dominica and St Lucia will play from 5 p.m. and Grenada and Barbados rumble from 7 p.m.

On Wednesday, St Vincent and the Grenadines takes on Dominica from 7 p.m. Before them at 5 p.m., Barbados and St Lucia meet.

The tournament ends on Friday, March 8, with St Vincent and the Grenadines facing Grenada from 7 p.m., with St Lucia and Dominica taking on each other from 5 p.m.

The 20-member St Vincent and the Grenadines team reads: Jadiel Chance, Anthony Hazel and Cklon Mc Kie, the goalkeepers, with Kishawn Johnny, Kenyon Delpesche, Derron Rouse, Tristan Marshall and Jamal Yorke, the defenders.

Midfielders selected are Brad Richards, Diel Spring, Teron Miller, Hosni Chandler, Gidson Francis, Jovern Mc Kree and Mazik Herbert.

Chavel Cunningham, Mark Browne, Dorian Dallaway, Seaquean Millington and Cornelius Stewart are the strikers named.