De­fence Force coach, Ross Rus­sell be­lieves his team is still on course to win its first Dig­i­cel Pro League ti­tle in 11 years de­spite drop­ping its first league points in a 0-0 draw with W Con­nec­tion on Tues­day at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va. It was the first time this sea­son in the Pro League De­fence Force had al­so failed to find the back of the net. Speak­ing af­ter the match, Rus­sell said, "It was a hard fought match and it was proven by the end re­sult." "The game was re­al­ly a top of the ta­ble tie and we knew that it wasn't go­ing to be easy," con­tin­ued Rus­sell. Rus­sell, a for­mer na­tion­al goal­keep­er was full of praise for the per­for­mance of goal­keep­er Kevin Gra­ham.

"Both teams played well with sol­id de­fens­es but a lot of cred­it must go to our goal­keep­er Gra­ham who de­nied W Con­nec­tion on three clear chances. De­spite the drawn re­sult, De­fence Force with 31 points from 11 match­es still en­joys a healthy nine point lead over de­fend­ing cham­pi­on, bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic.

In their re­main­ing match­es, the "Teteron Boys" will meet Di­recTV North East Stars, Ma Pau, Joe Pub­lic, FC SouthEnd, Cale­do­nia AIA, San Juan Jabloteh and St Ann's Rangers. How­ev­er, Rus­sell is of the be­lief his be­lief that his club can win the ti­tle well be­fore the end. "We're still un­beat­en and we're not pan­ick­ing," he boast­ed.

"But we're not tak­ing any chances al­though the pres­sure is on the oth­er clubs to try and catch up. They are go­ing to try and come at us, but at the same time they are go­ing to make it dif­fi­cult for each oth­er. "I did my home­work up front and we are now in a good po­si­tion to win the League be­fore time. We are go­ing to make the League ex­cit­ing. The play­ers have worked well for me and the club this sea­son and we are aim­ing to pick up wins in our two games (North East Stars and Ma Pau) be­fore the Christ­mas break," con­clud­ed the De­fence Force coach.