Trinidad and Tobago coach Bertille St Clair refused to make any excuses for his teams 1-0 defeat to St Vincent and the Grenadines on Sunday but questioned the penalty call against T&T and the decision to play on a playing field which did not meet the requirements of the game.
I am not a crier but I know that football has 17 laws and the first one is the size of the pitch and you cannot have a small field that is less than the minimum size and this is what happened. I would like to no why it is we have match commissioners and referees from different Caribbean countries who do things like this, This is international football we are playing and this is unfair to see that we have to play to these sort of conditions, St Clair told TTFF Media after the loss.
Commenting on the performance, he said We saw that both teams had a lot of pressure because the action was intense throughout on the field we played on today. We didnt have the space we needed but then again, if we had converted our chances, we would have gone on to win it quite easily. I also felt that if it was a penalty and our player was the last defender then he should have been sent off. But we have qualified for the next round and we can only grow from this sort of experience. This game gave me another indication as to what we have to do because we cannot afford to be up one day and then down the day after.
St Vincent coach Zoran Vranes was undoubtedly pleased with the end result.
I think we played to our plan very good. We were stronger in this game, Vranes said. We had a problem with the pitch but we cant think about this today and I just want to wish Trinidad all the best in the World Cup. Regarding the penalty call in favour of his team Maybe it was or was not a penalty but when you have Trinidad playing and a referee from Jamaica like we had today then you expect the right decision. I cannot comment any further on this, the Yugoslav-born coach said.
The T&T team returns home on Monday evening.