St Benedict’s ready for Fatima revenge

ST BENEDICT’S College and Fatima College will continue their 2022 season rivalry when the teams face off in the finals of the Coca-Cola Boys Intercol final at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo at 4.30 pm on Wednesday. St Benedict’s College coach Randolph Boyce knows Fatima will be seeking revenge and expects a battle when the teams square off.

St Benedict’s, nicknamed the La Romaine Lions, emerged with a 3-1 win when the teams met in the Secondary Schools Football League premiership league final in October at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva. It was an electric atmosphere with rhythm sections and flags adding to the vibe at the venue.

St Benedict’s and Fatima also played earlier in the league competition and the match ended 1-1.

“That (final) hurdle is a big one,” Boyce said. “It will be a very tough game in many different ways. We played Fatima already on two occasions…we dealing with the fellas psychological mindset. Sometimes winning already could get you complacent and when you complacent it can lead to mistakes.”

Speaking more about the challenge he expects from Fatima, Boyce said, “Fatima is not going to take this lightly and they are not a walkover to begin with. It so happen we happen to get the better of them in a final and they will be looking for revenge. That’s why we have to guard against (a complacent) mindset.”

Boyce said St Benedict’s have adjusted their style of play depending on the opposition. “The last four games we played we were teaching our players to be able to adjust as the game goes along because different strategies just keep popping up when it comes to playing St Benedict’s College. We know they are going to come with some sort of strategy up their sleeve. We do not know what it is as yet, but we have to be mindful and we have to guard against that because they not coming to lie down.”

St Benedict’s are coming off a comfortable 4-0 win against Signal Hill Secondary in the semi-finals on Saturday at Hasely Crawford Stadium in the first match of a doubleheader. In the second match, Fatima booked a place in the final with a 4-2 win on penalties against Trinity College East after the match ended 2-2.

Boyce was satisfied with the effort of St Benedict’s in the semi-finals.

“I saw maturity, I saw discipline, I saw patience. In the second half, we threw away some easy chances that we should have taken, but in terms of how the team was playing we were good defensively and it would take a while to break down a team set up like that.”

Boyce said one of the key factors that has led to the team’s success this season is teamwork. “It is only about team. The way our team set up is only about team. As you can see the last game we did not play (Derrel) Garcia at all and we took off (captain Tarik) Lee early just to guard against injuries.”