NFA champs Belmont FC want to become pro unit

BELMONT FC won their first Northern Football Association (NFA) League Cup title at the Hasely Crawford Stadium training field in Mucurapo on Wednesday night.

An early second-half strike from Kendal Hackett was enough to give Belmont FC a 1-0 win over Guerreros FC. Belmont FC became the second team from Belmont to win the title following in the footsteps of St Francois Nationals who won previously.

Former St Anthony’s College players Che Benny and Haile Beckles are among those on the Belmont FC squad. A total of 18 teams competed in the tournament over the past six weeks.

Belmont FC coach Mark Benny was pleased with the effort of his players but thinks the standard of play could have been of a higher standard.

"Performance wise I think we could have been better. We have always been one of the fitter teams in the league."

Belmont FC have been in existence for six years and is a community-based team as 75 per cent of the players are from Belmont including goalscorer Hackett.

"Most of the players though are homegrown to our credit. It is more a Belmont-based team. We have a few people from outside, but they are friends of the players."

Benny has goals for the club and does not want to see the club stay in the NFA. "We want to bring a professional unit out of Belmont. From day one that has been the dream."

Belmont FC trains at Queen's Park Savannah which is within walking distance from the community.

With support from sponsors, the club can reach further. Asked where he sees the club in two years, Benny said, "We know how the football goes. It is all dependent on sponsorship. Right now everything usually is on my pocket. We try to do fundraisers in between. We are hoping to do something where we could get the community involved."

Benny was thankful that fans made the trip from Belmont to the Hasely Crawford Stadium training field for the match. "We had a good turnout last night and we had a lot of Belmont supporters. We trying to keep that (because) you play for community and family first. We have a set of players who represent Belmont to the best of their ability and we just want to carry that forward."

Discussing what may have contributed to the success of the team, Benny pointed to the defence. "Defensively we pride ourselves on our rugged and sturdy defending. Even though we never won the league (previously) we always come out probably conceding the least amount of goals. We are a very solid unit and we play for each other."