CATHERINE HALL, St James — Timothy Hankinson, coach of Montego Bay United (MBU), thinks he has found a system of play that will help to keep his team at the top of the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL).

After a strong performance for 60 minutes against US Major League Soccer outfit DC United in their Scotiabank CONCACAF Championships League (SCCL) game at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Tuesday, Hankinson thinks if his team can embrace what they did in the first 60 minutes, they should at last make it to the final of the RSPL for a third- straight year.

The American, who took over the team in June this year, was full of praise for the strides his team has made in a short time, and despite giving up a 3-0 lead and had to hold on for a 3-3 draw on Tuesday, he saw that as part of the process to the destination he has in mind.

“From what I can see in the RSPL, teams get very stretched, it’s a very up-and-down, box-to-box game and maybe for the fans that’s exciting. But, for me, playing a more tactical approach like we did (Tuesday) can create, I would hope, obstacles and challenges for our RSPL opponents,” Hankinson the Jamaica Observer.

“I think the way we played (Tuesday) will build confidence in a style that our players will embrace and look to bring to those games and we will see how successful we will be there,” said the American.

The much-travelled 60-year-old reminded the Observer how far the team had come in a month and a half.

“We were playing street ball six weeks ago, so from that standpoint, I thought they (MBU) played a very organised game defensively.

“I think they stayed connected with very little space for DC United. You noticed that DC played most of their attacks in a long ball fashion and that’s really not a trademark of their game; they are more of high possession percentage team. So the fact that we can take away that element and force them into a game that really did not play to their strengths, really said a lot about what we accomplished.”

Hankinson also saluted his team’s attacking approach. “Our possessions were good and the attacks we created, not just on the ones we scored on, but there were a few others we could have had one or two more goals,” he noted.

Montego Bay United have played just two games in the RSPL and three more in the SCCL, and Hankinson said the team’s fitness was not up to 100 per cent just yet as his players ran out of gas midway the second half.

“The physical can affect the mental,” Hankinson said. “I think that fatigue started to kick in and that affected the decision- making process, you are a half-step slower, half-thought and decision slower, and that’s the moment and time that a striker needs to be able to pick a spot and put the ball away.

“I thought in the first half fitness was not an issue. I thought we did very good closing down defenders, staying with marks, getting up first in the air on crosses to clear and winning those clearances,” the silver-haired coach said.

“I think in the second half we got to some clearances, but did not always win the second ball and that allowed them to re-attack and come back at us, but those are solvable problems… we are still at the early stages of the process of building this team for the highest level of competition and we will have another test against our Panamanian foes,” Hankinson went on.