Hyde bemoans Lion's poor record in their den

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

Many-time national league winning coach, Lenworth Hyde Sr, believes in order for him to get another title under his belt this season at Humble Lion, his team has to start believing that they can actually win the Red Stripe Premier League.

Hyde witnessed his charges fail to win for the sixth consecutive game at their Effortville Community Centre home base - their den - yesterday afternoon, as they played to a nil-all draw with Waterhouse.

The result saw Humble Lion close out the first round in eighth position in the 12-team table on 15 points, having not won any of their home games.

Waterhouse, on the other hand, experienced a disappointing end to the round, as after being the early pacesetters they missed out on the end-of-round final, finishing third with 16 points.

Hyde believes his players' eagerness to please their extremely vocal home supporters has attributed to them drawing four home games and losing two; while on the road they have conjured up three wins and two draws.

"Every time you draw at home you are disappointed as hometown is supposed to be your fortress; you are supposed to win games here and the whole first round we haven't won a game, so I am disappointed in that," Hyde expressed.

"I think when they are playing away they are more relaxed and composed; here they don't want to make any mistakes. They want to play to please the supporters and when you are not relaxed you make more mistakes than anything else," he added.

Psychological hurdle

Hyde is, however, satisfied with the team's current position in the league, especially as this is only their third season playing top-flight football. But he believes the players must get over a psychological hurdle to do better.

"We are in good condition, but it is just the mental part that we need to work on and maybe we are going to have to hire a psychologist next round to make them believe that they can win it," Hyde shared.

The lone moment of excitement in a game which saw both teams struggle to create clear-cut chances came in the 36th minute, when Waterhouse's Jermaine 'Tuffy' Anderson got the ball into the back of the net after executing a spectacular 30-yard volley.

However, the goal was disallowed and Anderson cautioned for having handled the ball.

The handball decision and subsequent scrapping of the goal did not go down well with the Waterhouse players or coaching staff, resulting in a brief hold-up in play and the ejection of Waterhouse's coach, Donovan Duckie.

Duckie was still fuming after the final whistle had sounded.

"We need to look at the goal for Anderson, it was a classic ... would have been the best one for the season, I didn't see where the ball was handled," Duckie outlined.

He added: "I feel good that we didn't lose and going into the second round we just need to be more consistent."