Jericho Rangers emerge as Hanover's best

Western Bureau:Jericho Rangers, who recently won the 2010-11 Hanover Football Association's (HFA) Captain's Bakery & Grill Major League, will be heading into the 2011-12 Western Confederation Super League on a high as the club's management eyes the future with much optimism.

"Our ultimate aim is to qualify for the National Premier League (NPL) so we are looking at possibly winning the Western Super League within two years," said Ray McIntyre, the manager of the Jericho Rangers outfit. "We want to get a feel of the competition in the first year but after that the focus will be on winning at qualifying for the NPL."

In what was a fantastic second season in the HFA Major League, the Rangers crowned themselves champions with three rounds of matches to spare, taking home the Captain's Bakery Trophy and the $150,000 winners' purse for their effort. In their four games in the eight-team competition, they won nine games, drew three and lost two.

"The highlight for me was the fact that, after we started the season shakily in our first two games, we went on to win 10 games straight," said an elated McIntyre "This year's win makes up for last year when we finished second in our debut season."

While Rangers' management has much confidence in the ability of the team that won the Major League, they will nonetheless be seeking to strengthen the team going into the Western Super League, which is a symbol of supremacy in western Jamaica's football.

"We have a pretty good team but the Western Super League will be no easy pickings, so we will be looking at recruiting some players to complement what we have," said McIntyre. "We don't intend to spend more than two years in the Super League so we want to go in there with the strongest team possible."

While he was quite pleased with the overall performance of the team, in reflecting on the season, manager McIntyre said he felt compelled to single out strikers Imran Brown and Darrel Jowrey who scored 18 goals between them during the season.

"Brown scored 10 goals and was in dazzling form before he sustained a broken leg, which kept him out of our last three games," said McIntyre. "Jowrey finished the season with eight goals and was a constant threat to all our opponents right through the season."

- A.F.