Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
Constant Spring's Carl Brown in NPL action against Village United recently. Constant Spirng are facing relegation after only one round of the current season. - RICHARD MORAIS PHOTO
DANNY LYN could not have imagined his Constant Spring team being so far back at this early stage of the Wray and Nephew National Premier League.
With the first of three rounds gone, the uptown team has only four points and trails second-from-bottom Seba United by as many points, while the next team up the ladder has 10 points. At the other end, Harbour View are going along at a merry clip on 27 points.
As it stands, with only two rounds remaining, Spring may already have lost all hope of challenging for the league title, but Lyn remains firm in his belief that they will maintain their place among the nation's elite clubs when the journey is complete.
Speaking to The Gleaner after Constant Spring were beaten 2-1 away at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex by Arnett Gardens on Wednesday - their seventh loss of the season, Lyn said they are still confident of avoiding the drop. Like so many of their other matches, Lyn said: "Overall I thought we should have won the game, we had the better of the chances. We lost our shape for one moment and Arnett scored."
A DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD
"We don't think getting out of the relegation zone is a problem. It's a difficult task but to come out of relegation now we're two wins away," he admitted reflecting on the six-point tally that would lift Spring to 10, above Seba and in line with Rivoli - to escape the bottom two spots reserved for demotion.
Two teams, Boys' Town and Wadadah, are only a point further away, locked at 11 but the Constant Spring coach is of the opinion his team is good enough to rise well above its current position.
"We have the ability to do better, it's just that we're not getting ourselves together. Unfortunately we're not scoring. We have been playing well all season, what we need to do is look to regroup the team and move on from here."
They need some serious regrouping, having lost seven times and drawn four of the 11 first-round contests. All the tied matches have come at their home ground and they have a terrible away record, losing all six matches. At this point, that is water under the bridge, at least as far as Lyn is concerned.
"We are not looking at history, we are looking forward to the future," he said. "We can only look to better things."
Strictly on the basis of their first-round stats, Lyn's latter comment is right on the money. Not far off is his follow-up remark.
"On a whole I think the team is playing well. We're competitive but the win is elusive."
Apart from the four drawn matches, they have lost four times by one-goal margins and in the other games, the goal-margins were two. Interestingly, two of those losses have come against teams in the bottom half - 3-1 at Reno and 2-0 to Seba.
SKILLS
Besides looking to sharpen their finishing skills, Lyn, who took over coaching duties from Everton Bender almost a week ago, wants to strengthen his squad.
"We're looking at some players. The window opens in January so we have to be looking at players who don't need transfers."
Regardless of player complement, Constant Spring need to move and move fast to lift themselves back into a position that fits better into Lyn's imagination.
