Conrad Byfield, the Waterhouse FC team manager, says the club was forced to chart a different path after results continued to go against them under the reign of the departed Head Coach Paul Young.

Earlier in this season’s Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL), Waterhouse were a distant shadow of the vibrant side of former years under two previous coaches — Calvert Fitzgerald and Anthony Patrick — and still laboured when Young took charge.

They gathered only eight points from nine matches during the tenure of the former Reggae Boyz striker. The Drewsland-based club won just one game during that time. They are in cellar place with 21 points and are staring relegation in the face.

It is understood that Waterhouse and Young severed ties when the club’s administration told him they wanted to add Donovan Duckie to the senior coaching staff.

Young objected and that paved the way for the return of Patrick, the man who led them to the final two seasons ago.

“We want to thank Coach Paul Young for all the hard work that was done in the time spent with us. We are at the bottom of the table and we’re still not getting the results that we need and we have to continue to try to tweak and try to improve on what we are doing to get out of this unfamiliar position,” Byfield told the Jamaica Observer during the RSPL press conference at the beer company’s headquarters on Thursday.

Though conceding that the raft of coaching changes may appear unsettling, Byfield explained that Patrick has always been amongst the management set-up since returning to the club this season.

“Since Patrick returned during the course of this season, he never left. We understand that changes would seem frequent, but football is a game that requires results and we have to look at whether we are getting the results.”

The former national champions started this season with a number of new faces in their management structure. Young has publicly stated that meddling by some within the club had threatened to undermine his role as coach during his nine-game stint.

Byfield did not speak to Young’s allegation, but he told the Observer that “it’s just a matter of time before things start to click” under the new administration.

He is optimistic that Waterhouse, who won national titles in 1997-98 and 2005-06, can avoid the drop with only eight matches remaining in the preliminary round.

“I have every confidence we can avoid [relegation]. If you look at the core of our team, these are not players who are lacking in experience. These are players who have been to the semi-finals, the final, etc. I am confident that once we can improve on the work that we are doing that we can come off with the necessary victories,” said the Waterhouse team manager.

Byfield added that Waterhouse have gone on winning streaks before and should be able to win eight straight games — a feat that he believes would save them.

— Sanjay Myers