TT coach in the hot seat

BERTILLE ST CLAIR is positive that the Trinidad and Tobago football team would emerge victorious in Wednesday’s CONCACAF World Cup Final Round qualification opener against the United States, scheduled for the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. Speaking to the media following TT’s 2-1 win over Haiti at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Thursday night, the national team’s coach said: “I am feeling confident. Everybody feels otherwise but I’m in the hot seat.

“I recognise what’s happening and the man above knows the result before the match starts. I’m praying it would be in our favour.” Pertaining to Thursday’s fixture, St Clair noted: “We are doing a development programme. We’re going to do things step by step.” He continued: “In life, people make errors, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down. If you go down, and stay down, then you’re out. And that’s what we’re trying to show the public, that we can rise up from the ground.” On Thursday assistant coach David Nakhid was used as a second-half substitute and St Clair minced no words when questioned about Nakhid’s international comeback.

“I think that (people) have been clamouring all the time, we have no midfielder, so if David Nakhid is 92 and he’s running faster than a 20-year-old and touching the ball better, I’ll use him,” St Clair responded. Concerning another controversial TT player —  Dwight Yorke — St Clair said: “Dwight Yorke is the most established footballer we have in Trinidad and Tobago. If you say ‘Dwight Yorke on the field,’ (the US) might want two or three people to mark him,” he added. “(The public) is not seeing it that way, (they’re) seeing it personal.” St Clair noted that the injured trio of defenders — Marlon Rojas, Derek King and Brent Sancho, should be fit in time for Wednesday’s match while the British-based quartet of Marvin “Dog” Andrews, Kenwyne Jones, Clayton Ince and Carlos Edwards would link up with the team in time for tomorrow’s friendly against the Haitians at Shaw Park, Scarborough.