Warriors on serious business

With an eager look in his eyes, the former Manchester United star had only smiles for the Panamanian photographers on hand at the National Stadium for his team’s evening session. But he wasted no time in letting it be known that the Warriors were in town on a serious mission.

Yesterday, the Panamanians did in fact try to play some tricks on the visiting team. With breakfast scheduled for 8 am at the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel, Yorke and his team-mates were told that it would not be ready until 8.30.

This forced the departure for the training pitch to be pushed back by half an hour to 9 am. Added to that, the players were left waiting around as the team bus had not arrived by 9 am. And the team management was then informed that the driver would be 30 minutes late due to a protest action involving the bus drivers association.

This led to Beenhakker cancelling the session as it would affect the day’s schedule. He did however warn them of a more intense session in the evening.

As the players returned to their rooms, the bus pulled up and the driver then told the TT management that he had been advised that the team had pushed back training by an hour.

"It’s all part of the game but it won’t throw us off," Beenhakker said. "We know this is going to be as tough a game as any for us in this campaign," Yorke told TTFF Media.

"Panama will be coming all out to prove something and we know this will be a difficult match for us because we don’t expect that they will just lie down and let us get the three points we so badly want. If it’s anything I think they will think that three points are being nice to get as well even though they are not in the race anymore," the Sydney FC skipper sa id.

Yorke along with Marvin Andrews are the only two players to participate in every match in the current final qualifying round.

He said his fitness rate was fine at the moment and he definitely exhibited that on the training pitch.

TT trained yesterday evening at the National Stadium and will have one further session on the eve of the match at the Estadio Romel Fernandez, venue for tomorrow’s crucial match which kicks off at 8 pm Panama time.

Meanwhile, while beating Panama is the main focus of the team, the Warriors did not forget the passing of former team-mate Mickey Trotman.

On Monday marked four years since he lost his life in a vehicular accident and it occurred when TT were preparing for a World Cup qualifier against Honduras.

Stern John scored the winner sending Honduras crashing out of the race.

This time though, it’s the Warriors who are trying to keep their chances alive and they will be doing it not forgetting Mickey.

"It’s not something that we have forgotten and certainly Mickey is someone we will never forget," goalkeeper Shaka Hislop said.

"It’s been four years now since he left us and just during this week we were sitting and talking about him. So in that way he’s still in our thoughts and you can expect us to bring home a good win with him in mind aside from the overall desire to get a result to improve our chances of qualifying," Hislop said.

"Definitely if I pot on Saturday then the goal will be in memory of Mickey," John said yesterday.