Dover ‘keeping cards close to his chest’

By Avenash Ramzan

It’s all about being smart and not giving out much information. That seems to be the mantra of Golden Jaguars Interim Head Coach, Wayne Dover, ahead of the international friendly against Martinique on Tuesday (March 28).

Speaking at a pre-game press conference on Monday at the Signature Inn in Queenstown, Dover divulged little with regards to the team’s strategy and starting combination.

“Well for reasons not wanting to put (information) out there because of strategy and so; playing with our cards close to our chest we don’t want to actually name our potential starting team because we don’t know who might be listening or scouting with regards to the opponent to literally strategise for us,” Dover related.

He added, “As a coach, it is always important for us to keep that to ourselves. I’m not being disrespectful to the media in any way, but just being clear with regards to how we approach things.”

Later in the press conference, Dover offered this statement. “The fact that Martinique has been touted as one the top teams in the region and they qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and they’re fielding a very strong team, we as a nation who has demonstrated we can do good at the international level, we’re going to be approaching the game very conservative in the early stages and then we will assess things and more or less once the situation has played out itself we will try to impose our own will on the opponent.”

Dover further stated that he seen improvement among the players ever since they came together in encampment, and he is confident of a solid performance when action kicks off at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground, Linden.

“There has been great improvement over the last two sessions with regards to what we set out to achieve in those sessions and I’m quite satisfied at the end of yesterday’s (Sunday’s) session with some of things that we saw came out,” Dover intimated.

Meanwhile, the Martinique players and official arrived in Guyana on Monday afternoon to honour their international friendly date with the Jaguars.

The team, led by head of delegation Fred Miram Marthe Rose, touched down at the Eugene F. Corriera International Airport at Ogle at 14:15h. Martinique’s captain is Kevin Parsemain and the coach is Jean-Marc Civault.  

Tuesday’s game will kick off at 20:00h.