St. Ann’s Rangers are hoping to ride the wave of last week’s 1-0 upset win over recently crowned Digicel Pro League Champions W Connection in this season’s Lucozade Sport Goal Shield quarter-final round at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium.
It was from a 5th minute penalty strike that attacking midfielder Devon Modeste converted past goalkeeper Aquelius Sylvester before holding a solid defense for the rest of the match against the former Goal Shield winners.
Rangers are now against Defence Force from 6pm on Friday at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in the first of a semi-final double header at the Marabella venue, followed by T&TEC FC against Caledonia AIA from 8pm.
“We played them (Defence Force) twice before and suffered a 4-1 and 2-1 defeats,” said Dean Pacheco who took over as head coach following the sacking of Anthony Streete in early March.
“But those times were a transformation from the last coach. This time we have a lot more younger players in the squad and since I’ve taken over the team, our players are now beginning to mesh together.”
We are definitely looking for another surprise result because we want to reach the Final next week. This is a good chance for us to win a title this season. It’s a lot shorter than the League and only eight teams. The players all want to go on to win the tournament and we all want to win it for the club owners.
Once we keep the ball away from them (Defence Force) we will have a good game. They are very physical, not like when I used to play at the Army. Back then we had a lot more skillful players. Now it’s just a physical Army,” added Pacheco a former Defence Force and Rangers player.
“The last time we met (Defence Force) in the 2-1 defeat we probably threw away eight goals, so this time it’s about keeping the ball away from them and putting away our chances when we get them,” said the Rangers coach.
Speaking on his triumph over Connection in the quarter-finals, Pacheco said, “It was simple to the players. Not because W Connection won the League, we can’t defeat them. We had enough time to prepare for them and on the day it was just about clogging the midfield and playing one striker on top because the midfield has been Connection’s strength over the years.”
Pacheco, a former Trinidad and Tobago international, may be new to the position of head coach but not to the role adding, “It’s a great feeling to hold the position but it’s not something I’m unfamiliar with, because the last coach (Streete) used to give me opportunities to take charge of the team.”