WITH THE Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Michael Ricketts’ recently stating that his organisation will be focusing on young players for the remainder of the World Cup qualifiers, Dunbeholden’s crafty midfielder Demario Phyllips says he is now eyeing a call-up to the Reggae Boyz squad.
Phyllips netted his first goal of the season to lead Dunbeholden to a 1-0 victory over Molynes United in their Jamaica Premier League (JPL) encounter at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence yesterday.
The victory was Dunbeholden’s third of the season from four matches in the competition.
Phyllips, a former Jamaica College and Clarendon College player, has also dished out three assists for Dunbeholden in the competition this season.
SEVENTH PLACE
The Reggae Boyz are currently in seventh place with seven points after 11 matches and are out of contention for one of the three automatic spots or the fourth-place play-off spot with three games remaining in the competition.
Canada lead the eight-team tournament with 25 points, followed by the United States and Mexico on 21 each, Panama, 17, Costa Rica, 16, and El Salvador on nine.
The 23-year-old Phyllips told The Gleaner that his main focus this season is to become the assist king and to earn a call-up.
“I have been working very hard this season because I need a national call-up,” said Phyllips.
“From I leave high school, I am always looking for a call-up for even the Under-23 team, but that didn’t happen but I just have to keep working at it,” he said.
The soft-spoken Phyllips underscored that he has been working very hard to improve on his all-round game and therefore he is happy to score his first goal of the season.
TRAINING PAYING OFF
“I have been training very hard and so I wasn’t surprised that I scored for Dunbeholden today because I have been practising on my finishing and so it is just paying off,” he said.
“I have three assists and one goal and so as a midfielder, I need a lot more goals and assists in order to help my team to go forward and even win this competition,” Phyllips said.
He stated that Dunbeholden had been playing well in the competition this season, but they are not going to get carried away because their main focus is to get into the play-offs.
“We are working very hard to improve and we are not going to get complacent because we need to get three points from every game that we play in this competition,” Phyllips said.
Garnett Lawrence, head coach of Molynes United, said his team played well despite the defeat.
“It was a tough one to take because the decisions have not been going in favour of us but we just have to continue working hard,” said Lawrence.
“We created some chances but unfortunately we didn’t convert one, but it is a process and we are trusting the process,” he said.
The defeat was Molynes United’s third of the season from their four matches.
In the second match of the double-header, Cavalier also recorded a similar 1-0 victory over Humble Lion. Ronaldo Webster scored the lone goal for Cavalier in the 38th minute.
Yesterday’s Games
Molynes United 0 Dunbeholden 1
Humble Lion 0 Cavalier SC 1