The premier event of the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association is about to descend on Warner Park, and the four competing teams of the Final Four are eager and ready to tango on the field of play.
Coaches of the four teams have expressed confidence in their chances of winning, and have called on their fans to rally for the cause.
The play-offs for the 2017 edition of the SKNFA Final Four will commence on Wednesday, 24th May, when a double-header will have FLOW 4G Cayon Rockets playing Hobson Enterprises Garden Hotspurs, in a 6 pm match at Warner Park, in the first of the matches.
The second match of the Premier League Final Four will follow that match at 8 pm, Warner Park, with an encounter between S. L. Horsford St. Paul’s United and RAMS Village Superstars.
Coach George ‘Yellowman’ Isaac, of the FLOW 4G Cayon Rockets, commenting on his team’s readiness, said, “We’ve just come out the league, the FA Cup. We lost last night, and we have to get it right. But we are prepared, and it is just to get the final team together to make the team more cohesive so that we would have a good side for the first game.”
He continued, “As the Final Four approaches, the team should be very fit, and we know we have to raise the bar with our play…. I want our fans to come out and cheer us on and help us get into the final.”
First match competitor Hobson Enterprises Garden Hotspurs is looking forward to the encounter with Cayon Rockets and intends to play a top game.
Coach Alexis Richards said, “H. E. Garden Hotspurs is ready for the Final Four. We’ve been waiting for a while. We have been out of the play-offs now for three years, and now that we are back in, the guys are confident, training hard, and I believe we are at a level that we can win this championship.”
And coach of S. L. Horsford St. Paul’s United, Austin Huggins, is anticipating a recapture of the Cup. And he has special reasons for doing so.
He said, “My expectation is to be successful at recapturing the championship, because last year we lost out to Cayon, and if we had won, it would have been a ‘three-peat’, so after we lost that opportunity, we decided to go all out and recapture the championship.”
And what can football fans expect?
Huggins’ take: “It is going to be exciting. The guys are up to it, and training has been going well. The fans will have a treat, because we are going to be real fit and ready and full of enthusiasm, because we want to bring back the championship to St. Paul’s. We wouldn’t be disappointing at all.”
RAMS Village Superstars Coach Jeffery Hazel believes the team is up to the task, although he concedes the team did not play as well as it could have. For him, though, it is about fine-tuning the game play.
“We have not been playing bad for the season. We just need to improve in some areas and consistently be more disciplined with those tactics, those little things that would take us over the edge,” Hazel said.
Ultimately, football fans will be coming to Warner Park to see the top four teams in the country compete with skill and determination.
Hazel commented, “The football level will definitely be increased. The general public should come out and support football, at the end of the day. They need to come out and rally behind their respective community teams.”
Matches will be played on Wednesday, 24th May, Saturday, 27th May and Tuesday, 30th May. Two matches will be played on each of those dates, starting at 6 pm and 8 pm respectively.
