TT coach Lawrence switches focus to Honduras qualifier

Speaking last Friday, Lawrence indicated that his team would be giving it absolutely everything to achieve the required results in the next set of matches. TT will host Honduras on September 1, and then travel to face Panama on September 5.

“At the moment we have got Honduras next and that is the key focus. Plain and simple we need to win the game. If we want to have any chance of qualifying for Russia, we need to win this game.

It’s not going to be easy because there are no easy games in World Cup qualifying but we are home and we need to take advantage of the situation. After we win this game then we need to win the next one against Panama, plain and simple,” Lawrence stated.

And as to why there should be that belief that TT can still get to Russia 2018, the former Wrexham FC player said, “If you want to take the positives from the games we played so far, you would like to say we have a good chance but it’s not going to be easy because Honduras are in the same position as us.

“ They know they need the points. They are going to come here well prepared and they are going to fight. We just need to ensure that we want it just a little bit more than them,” he added.

“We have to focus on the positives.

It’s not an easy thing and it’s not often we go to a place like Costa Rica and be able to come out of the game with more possession and more shots and having a performance where I thought we should have taken something away from the game, When you look back at the positives it gives you hope going into the next game. But we cannot afford to rest on these good things we have done, we have to keep progressing.” With his immediate focus being the men’s team when he came in to the job in late January, Lawrence still has his eyes on the overall development here.

“I’ve come in right in the middle of the campaign for Russia so I haven’t been able to go deep into how we are going to structure this but at some point I am going to be involved. I am going to have meetings with the youth team coaches. I’ve met with the zones recently because we have started the Under-13 programme. The idea is to try and bring everything into one so that we can have direction in our development process and not just try to create winning teams.

“We need to create our own philosophy. We need to be very strong in what we are going to do and believe in what we are going to do. I have brought on board coaches with me and we have worked together for the past fourand- a-half months or so. They have seen what I am trying to do and they have all bought into it.

The idea now is for it to spiral all the way down. The idea is for people to see there is progression and there is positive in what we are trying to do and then people will come on board and try to integrate it within their club.”