Cayman’s inspirational captain Tom Elliot believes that the side that lost to Bermuda on Sunday will bounce back.
Cayman were never disgraced in their two matches against the Bermudans and can hold their heads high.
‘Obviously, we’re completely gutted but if we reflect on the game this one was completely different to the first one,’ said Elliot immediately after the 3-1 lost at the Truman Bodden field on Sunday night. ‘The first game they literally took it to us. We were never in the game, we luckily pinched a goal at the end and we were solid at the back and kept them out.
‘But this one, we could have been 2-0 up in the first 10 minutes and a few minutes later we were 1-0 down. I’m not pointing fingers, but we just needed a little bit of luck.
‘Their first goal took a little deflection on the wall, Tuda parried it and Nusum who is lightning quick, beat us to the ball.
‘Their second, pure luck, a dinky little cross in. Martin Waud and the midfielder go up. He didn’t even know where the ball was and luckily it went in the net. 2-0 down in the first 20 minutes. If we had scored from one of the first two options we had it would have been a different game but that’s the nature of the game.’
Cayman definitely played better towards the end. Elliot feels it was a mixture of reasons. ‘We brought Marshall Forbes on who added an extra bit of class and Dion Brandon, plus we scored that goal which inspired us.
‘That was pushing us on. I definitely thought we were always in it. Even when they scored two in the first half which was lucky. And then they scored a third beginning of the second half, but we were still in the game. It’s not like we were stuck in our own third. They were just that little bit sharper than us, I guess. They take their opportunities and take them well.
‘I just said to all the lads in there, that we’re really young. I’m 28 and the third or fourth oldest in the team. We had a couple of 20-year-olds in the team and the rest are all between 20 and 25. I was the oldest starting today.
‘I just keep telling them that we’ve only been together for just over three months, we’re a really young team. We can’t expect to be as good as these guys straight away.
‘We’re going to take a couple of weeks off to lick our wounds and then come back and see how it goes. I’ve played since 2002 and then after Ivan it dropped off for a couple of year but I’ve never seen such consistency as right now.
‘Right now we have a crop of about 30 players we can pick from. There are quality players who didn’t even make the 18 today. Some guys, I personally think are better than me.
‘I think it’s important that we keep these guys together for the Digicel Cup and for the next couple of years and then hopefully, long-term we’ll make a decent team. Before I joined the team there was the likes of Michael Wilkes, Frederick Wilkes, Romeo Thomas, Lee Ramone… all these boys who had been playing together for a long time who were in the prime of their career and I was coming in really young and got the pleasure of playing with these lads.
Hopefully, the group we’ve got now will get to grow together again. Even though it’s hard to see, there are positive things to come.’
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