WCQ: Golden Jaguars skipper forthright about defeat to T&T

By Avenash Ramzan

Golden Jaguars skipper Samuel Cox was forthright in his assessment after his side went down 3-0 to Trinidad and Tobago in Group F action of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday evening.

Labelling the loss “a bitter pill to swallow”, the captain said going forward it will be a case of recognising the shortcomings and learning from the mistakes.

Despite the result at the Panamericano Stadium in SanCristobal, Dominican Republic, Cox maintained that his players are “an honest group of lads” who are determined to give their best every time.

A first-half double from Ryan Telfer (15^th and 44^th) and a seventh minute strike from Levi Garcia secured Trinidad and Tobago full points.

“I think the first-half performance was nowhere good enough, especially in our own defensive third,” Cox said at a post-match Virtual press conference.

“The game was played longer from both sides; they exploited us with that longer pass in behind us. We did have chances, but at the end of the day if you concede the goals that we did the truth of the matter is you don’t deserve to win football matches.”

The skipper continued: “If you can’t defend your own box and you’re not ruthless enough in front of the final third and in our attacking third then you’re not going to win football matches and that’s the short end of the story really.”

As the Jaguars get set to face the Bahamas in their second game of the Group on Tuesday (March 30), Cox said there must be forward-thinking and an intent on improving on the performance against T&T.

“We have to recognise our own shortcomings and mistakes; we need to do better, all 11 players and the boys coming off the bench, we know we’ve got to be better going forward, and we need to adjust that in the next game and learn from these mistakes.”

While the defeat did hurt, Cox explained they are cognisant of the deficiencies on the night.

“We’re an honest group of lads. Nobody goes out in any football match and wants to lose or doesn’t want to give their best. This is an honest group of players who want to do their best for Guyana, so we recognise it wasn’t good enough,” Cox stated.

“Like I said it’s a bitter pill to swallow and we just have to dust it off and look forward to the next game. You can’t dwell on the past now. We now look forward to Tuesday where we try and correct these things.”

The Golden Jaguars, a team in transition according to Head Coach Marcio Maximo, handed international debuts to four players in the game against Trinidad and Tobago. They were Omari Glasgow, Jobe Caesar, Bayli Spencer-Adams and Miguel Scarlett.

The upcoming matches in Group F are St. Kitts and Nevis versus the Bahamas this evening (March 28), while Trinidad and Tobago play Puerto Rico on Sunday (March 28).