… team arrives in T&T today
THE full Guyana senior football squad is expected to assemble at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain today as the players get ready for round two of the Digicel Caribbean Cup.
On the eve of their departure for the Twin Island Republic, Head Coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover reported that “Guyana is ready for action”.
“The vibes from within the camp we held here locally is that we intend to go all the way, by taking one game at a time. We must guard against complacency and over-confidence and not have a repeat like the 2006-2007 finals where we lost focus and lost our opening game against St Vincent,” Dover reminded.
“We are not bothered by FIFA’s electronic ranking. We have a task at hand and that starts with the first game which we aim to win. It is important to begin with a win and so dictate the pace of the group.
I think the upbeat attitude and confidence going into this round is where it ought to be. We will have a full session this afternoon and one tomorrow,” Dover emphasised.
Guyana, the number two rated team in the Caribbean, according to FIFA’s latest ranking, is grouped with St Vincent and the Grenadines and former Cup holders Haiti and T&T, as they battle for two spots in the 8-team finals set for November 26 to December 5  in Martinique.
In the first round, the Guyanese swept aside St Lucia 1-0, The Netherlands Antilles 3-2 and host Suriname 2-0 and now they begin their 2nd stanza in two days time against Haiti and the team bubbling with confidence.
The eleven locally based players together with the management and coaching staff left the country this morning and will be joined by the eight overseas-based players in Trinidad. Guyana’s second game will be against the hosts at 19:00 h on Thursday and two days later they conclude versus St Vincent at 17:00 h.
The Howard Lowe-led side is aiming to emulate what the Charles Pollard side achieved in the 2006-7 edition of the Region’s Premier football Showpiece.
On that occasion the Guyanese had a flawless run in the preliminaries as they won all six games, but at the finals they stumbled when they lost the opening game to St Vincent and the Grenadines.
A golden opportunity to advance to the prestigious CONCACAF Gold Cup was missed as they failed to reach the semis. The following tournament they did not make the finals and now they seek to qualify for the ‘Big Dance’ and dance all the way to the semis and further.
The full squad is: GOALKEEPERS: Ronson Williams and Derek Carter; DEFENDERS: Howard Lowe (captain), Charles Pollard, Chris Bourne, Jake Newton and JP Rodrigues; Midfielders: Chris Bourne, Chris Nurse, Sean Cameron, Shawn Beveney, Walter Moore, Dwain Ali and Dwain Jacobs and FORWARDS: Dwight Peters, Anthony Abrams, Warren Gilkes and Devon Millington. Head Coach Wayne Dover, Assistant Coach Collie Hercules, Goalkeeper Coach Gavin Browne, Physiotherapist Michelle Jackman and Manager Rawle Adams.