Dixon upbeat even as Portmore’s wretched DPL season continues
DESPITE leading former four-time Digicel Premier League champions Portmore United to an uncharacteristic five wins, six losses and six draws from 17 matches this season, coach Linval Dixon remains confident of keeping his job.
“I wouldn’t say (I’m) feeling the pressure,” Dixon told the Observer on Sunday after Portmore went down 0-1 to Harbour View.
It was their third home defeat at Ferdie Neita Park this season.
“Of course when you’re not winning the obvious thing (that’s) going to come is that the coach is at fault or the coach job is on the line, but as I said, we just have to dust ourselves off and work and hopefully we can score some goals in the next one (match),” he said.
Portmore, who have won three league titles this decade (2003, 2005 & 2008) and placed second on at least two other occasions, is currently lying in an unfamiliar sixth position in the 12-team premiership with 21 points, 12 behind leaders Harbour View.
The former national defender, who took over as Portmore head coach in 2005, has seen his team score only 10 goals, while conceding 12 this season. He believes it is just a matter before their fortunes change.
“I think our confidence level is a little bit down… one of the things we really think is happening is that we are so afraid of losing games, so we don’t know how to win games and that’s one of things that is beating us,” Dixon argued, noting that he will continue working to end the bad patch.
“We’re disappointed yes, but what can we say… the league goes on, we know that we are not doing so well at this particular time, but we’re not going to hang our heads down, we just have to work and hopefully we start to pick up and we start to score some goals and start winning,” he noted.
Dixon, who was a member of the Reggae Boyz team that participated at the 1998 World Cup in France, says the cohesiveness is the team is good and things will turn around shortly.
“We’re are all happy here and of course one of things we’re always saying is that we need to start winning, we need to start get back that winning mentality and we just have to keep on going forward,” added the former defender.