John, Ince, Sancho in line-up

ENGLAND-based trio Stern John, Clayton Ince and Brent Sancho have been included in Trinidad and Tobago’s 20-member squad to face Haiti in two friendly football internationals, from 3.30 pm today at the Queen’s Park Oval, Woodbrook and Thursday from 6 pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo. Sweeper Derek King is struggling to recover from a hamstring injury and the technical staff noted that the Joe Public captain will be included in the line-up for Thursday’s match. With King, who skippered the national team since the Digicel Cup qualifiers began in November, unavailable for today’s match, midfielder Angus Eve is expected to return to the starting line-up as the captain.

Coach Bertille St Clair was pleased with the attitude of the players entering today’s match. “(Yesterday) we were trying to get a feel of the turf,” he said. “We had the full team and it’s a bit hard surprisingly, although it had so much rain recently. “But the guys seem to be adapting fairly well and hopefully everything would fall in place (today),” he added. Concerning the return of John, Ince and Sancho to the fold, St Clair stated: “I was surprised that they could take this heat and stick to the hour-and-a-half  that we did.

I must commend them on that.” But he countered: “Some of the foreign-based players complained about how it’s (the ground) is hard. But I think the ball is travelling smoothly and eventually we’ll get used to it.” John, Ince and Sancho would be staying after the Haitian friendlies for next Wednesday’s CONCACAF World Cup Final Round qualifier against the United States at the Oval. Fellow overseas-based players Kenwyne Jones, Carlos Edwards, Marvin “Dog” Andrews and Shaka Hislop will be arriving in Trinidad during the week. The Haitians, under coach Carlo Marcelin, includes ex-Joe Public defender Pierre Bruny in their 18-member squad.

Teams —
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Clayton Ince, Daurance Williams (goalkeepers); Brent Sancho, Marlon Rojas, Derek King, Cyd Gray, Avery John, David Atiba Charles, Anton Pierre, Keyeno Thomas (defenders); Anthony Rougier, Angus Eve, Jose Luis Seabra, Densil Theobald, Leslie Fitzpatrick (midfielders); Stern John, Scott Sealy, Cornell Glen, Gary Glasgow, Nigel Pierre (strikers).