St Angela’s, St Agnes in preparation mode for riveting final

Courts Pee-Wee Schools Football…

This Sunday, the fifth annual Courts Pee-Wee Schools Football Championships will come to a close and the curtains are set to be drawn on what is expected to be highly competitive final between defending champions St. Angela’s and St. Agnes at the Banks DIH Thirst Park Ground.

Guyana Times Sport visited both camps on Friday and both teams were visibly focused on making sure all their various tactical assaults for the match.

Under the guidance of Coach Oscar Payne, the champions held their practice sessions in the school’s compound where Payne sated that there is no pressure on the boys to perform.

“There is no pressure on the team, we are not going to lose, we are going there as champions to defend our title, we got to win to show who are the real champions,” Payne explained.

The coach further explained that he is very impressed with the players since the work he has been putting has given him the desired results due to the fact that they are constantly winning games.

Most notably, Payne revealed that one of the main formula for their success lies with the discipline the players showcase as they must put academics before football.

He said, “the players are very discipline since because I told them they cannot put football before school and the boys are focused on their academics because they know if they don’t do well with the books they cannot play football.”

Commenting on the opposition, Payne said his players are in no way afraid of the challenge and all the boys will be rearing to go Sunday.

The boys in green and kaki will look to their leading goal scorer Seon Cato, who has netted 10 goals to date and showed the ability to be a head ache for the defence of opposing teams. Captain Antonio McArthur along with Antwonie Vincent are also some of the other talented players who can inspire their team to title repeat.

On the other hand, St. Agnes coach Troy Wright and his player are all confident they can dethrone their neighbours since they are hungry for success.

“The guys are eager to win, the schools always have grievances not with football but just being neighbours and this is a chance end the grievance by beating Angela’s,” Wright posited.

He added, “We have been playing well for the last seven weeks and the aim was to reach the last four and now we did, there is no turning back, we have to go and win.”

Having beaten Stella Maris [2014 winners], Marian Academy [2012 champs] and West Ruimveldt [2013 finalist] and now we are facing current champion, Wright feels the path only shows that they are destined to win the final.

The Church Street unit which is in their second year of the competition finished eight last year and their only loss this year occurred in the group stages when they loss 1-0 to Redeemer Primary.

Wright says that they made some mistakes in their semi-final against West Ruimveldt but they are rectified those issues and more so he said that he noticed some weak areas of the opposition which they are seeking to exploit to bring success.

Wright was extremely pleased with some of his standout performers such as Nikhail Carter, who before this tournament never played football and also the impressive duo of Anton McKoy and David Xavier.

The championship match will commence at 15:00 hrs and top players and schools will be rewarded various trophies and football cleats.