MOUNT Pleasant Football Academy’s Technical Director Wally Downes is hoping to be the first person to guide the club to the final of the Jamaica Premier League, but he will have to do it the hard way after his team was beaten 0-1 by Waterhouse Football Club in the first leg of the semi-final last weekend.

But the technical director admits that things could have been much different going into the return leg, had they been able to put away some of their chances.

“I think the sides were evenly matched; there wasn’t a lot in it and they scored their goal. We had a great chance to score on 65 minutes inside the six-yard box and that changes the course of the game. If we had taken our chance, it would have been different. So, still nothing in it and all to play.”

Downes believes that his team played a little bit too slow against Waterhouse in the first leg.

“Waterhouse have had a break. We all know that and we have had five games in 16, 17 days; that’s fine as well because it works both ways. They are possibly a little bit rusty and we were winning games so we were happy to play, but I just think the speed of our passing was short.”

He pointed to the increase in the speed of play after they went behind in the game, and expects another honest effort from his players again today.

“You could see after they scored our energy levels were increased and we took the game to them, and it became quite hairy for them.

“I want us playing a faster pace than that. Whether that caught up on us a little bit…it was a very, very hot day…I can forgive that because they have given me everything — the players — and I know that they will come again.”

In the end, he wants his players converting more of the chances they create in order to get more goals and win more games.

“You can have all the possession, you can create all of the chances, but the top and bottom of it is — if you don’t put the ball in the net, you don’t win the game.”

Downes has vowed to come out on the front foot and push Waterhouse all the way to the end.

“We’ll play how we play. We create chances the way we play, we score goals the way we play. All that’s happened is that we’re one down with 90 minutes to go.

“Games normally last 96 minutes. If we win the game, and I am very confident we can win the game, then everything is to play for. If we win it 2-0, great; then we win. If we win it 1-0 then we go to the extra time and we can win it in there, so it’s a very slender lead and human nature takes over.”

The highly experienced football man is quite familiar with the type of situation his club is in and knows exactly what to expect and how to prepare physically and mentally for this assignment.

“We had a lead last week, a healthy lead, and we gave a goal away early. I said before the quarter-finals that two-legged affairs are normally finalised in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the second half of the second game. Whose nerves will hold, who can maintain the way they play, who can add that bit extra, who wants it more, who goes to the wire.”

Downes firmly believes that the efforts put in this season by his entire squad will be rewarded at the end of the match today.

“The amount of effort we’ve put in this season to get to where we are, in no way we will be found wanting for that.”

The game which will be played at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence will begin at 12:00 noon in what is more than likely to be very hot conditions, which may also have some bearing on the outcome.

— Dwayne Richards