By Ma Pau Staff
May 17, 2010

Look forward to Ma Pau moving from strength to strength as the T&T Pro Football League season grows older.

“Our performances so far has been fair. But the results have been disappointing. We have not been capitalising on the chances we’re been getting. However, the players are starting to gel and hopefully within the next game or two we would be able to eradicate the goal scoring problem,” said coach Michael McCommie, ahead of the fourth round clash with Tobago United on Friday at Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya, from 6 pm. 

McComie added, “We take every game on its own merit so we will be making a couple changes to the team against Tobago. Our formation would also be altered ...... one because we are on the artificial surface and two because we have not really seen Tobago play so we must approach the game with caution.

“The astro turf will suit the Ma Pau style of game and we should be able to apply early pressure on Tobago United.”

Absent from the Ma Pau line-up will be suspended Seon Power and midfielder Corneal Thomas, who  will be out for one more week with a hamstring strain.

Commenting on the 2-2 draw W Connection on Saturday, McCommie said, “We went in the game as underdogs since W Connection are an established club in the Caribbean and we are an infant club.”

“They (W Connection) started off better than we did and held their own in the first 15 minutes. Their first goal  was fantastic (a free kick scored by Andre Pacheco) but the second I thought was due to poor marking by my players in the back.”

McCommie felt that after the 15-minute mark, the Ma Pau players settled down and tried to play tha game  they are accustomed to..... which is the short passing game.

“Much credit must go out to my players who showed a lot of character to cut the gap by one goal going into the half,” he pointed out. “Being two down obvisouly put you under pressure. But the players responded well, equalising with another great goal by Trevin Caesar, who with his back to the goal shot with his left foot on the turn to beat Jean Michael-Wiliams from about a distance of 22 yards. 

“Basically at the break, my instructions were to go out and execute the stuff we had been doing in training.

“In the second half, the players applied themselves well. We were more disciplined in  our game plan and we took control of the midfield area. One disappointment in the half was the sending off of Power for a second yellow card offence.

“The equaliser came from some hard work from Caesar and Anthony Wolfe to get a cross ball to Rennie Britto, who slammed the ball into the net with a one-time left-footed volley.

“That goal brought us on level terms with W Connection with 30 minutes left in the match. After that we were disappointed with the sending off of Powers and we had to make a couple of adjustments.

“With 10 men we were able to apply much more pressure on W Connection, as it was visible from the bench that they were concerned and worried about the pace of the Ma Pau players.

“We were a bit unlucky not to come away with a victory after creating three or four chances which we should of capitilised on in the last 15 minutes.”

Ma Pau is currently locked in third place along with defending champion bMobile Joe Public and Direct TV North East Stars on six points each. Unbeaten Defence Force heads the standings with 12 points followed by W Connection on seven.