Richard Hood, Police FC coach, is expecting a better showing from his team in 2018, after a disappointing end to the 2017 football season.
A 10-man Police outfit was beaten 3-1 by W Connection on Friday, in the final of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) FA Trophy competition, resigning them to another trophyless season.
Police finished a lowly eighth in the 10-team Pro League standings with 20 points from 18 matches.
Hood, speaking to Newsday on Friday, described the 2017 season as “up-and-down, inconsistent.”
He continued, “We just need to be a little bit more professional in our approach. We lost games and drew games that we definitely should have won, and we have this annoying habit of disrespecting opponents. Those we don’t really respect, we feel that we just need to turn up and we’ll win – it doesn’t happen that way. Against the top teams, we come out and work hard, but against the lesser-placed teams we don’t and that has cost us a lot.
“But I still believe we made some strides this year and I really look forward to next season, to really compete at (this) level.”
Hughtun Hector scored twice, in the 45th and 90th minutes, to guarantee the win, as well as the $100,000 jackpot for Connection in the FA Trophy final. Dimitrie Apai was the other scorer for Connection, in the 32nd, while Jameel Perry netted for the lawmen, in the 67th.
Reflecting on Friday’s match, Hood said, “I thought it was a good game of football. I thought both teams played well, both teams were going after it. It was good entertainment for the crowd. I’m happy for that.”
Analysing his team’s performance, he said, “I thought our performance was good in spurts. I thought we started well and then we conceded that ‘soft’ goal, a lapse in concentration. I think we fell apart a little bit after that, and we conceded a second goal as well.”
Hood said a half-time adjustment to the team’s formation got his team back into the game with Perry reducing the deficit.
He lamented, though, a red card shown by referee Crystal Sobers to Perry’s brother Kareem for violent conduct “basically dismantled all the good work that we were doing.”
He added, “Even when we went down to 10 men, we were still in the game, still fighting, still created opportunities. It just didn’t happen for us.”
Originally published in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday