Rod Underwood, the US-born coach of Digicel Pro League club, DirecTV North East Stars, believes his team will continue to improve following last Friday night's 0-0 with St Ann's Rangers at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
Stars are unbeaten with five points and are currently third, with defending champs bmobile Joe Public and Ma Pau. Defence Force leads with maximum nine points. "We were expecting a lot more in that game," said the American. "When we looked at the stats we outplayed them in every area, except when we looked at the results. Their plan worked for them as well, sitting back and absorbing the pressure."
"We created chances but failed to convert them," he said. "But soon we will have them behind the net. We have guys that scored buckets off goals in the league before, like (Gary) Glasgow and (Errol) McFarlane. We also have a prudent goalscorer in Sean Fraser who previously played in the USL.
"If we weren't creating chances then we would have a problem," Underwood continued. "We also have to be realistic. We've had eight weeks with the core of the team, but the bulk of the team have only been together for five of those weeks.
"People are saying that we should be getting full points against these teams (SouthEnd, Police and Rangers), but it's early in the season and we aren't playing teams with ten or eleven defeats. Getting five out of nine points, undefeated and playing away from home, as a team that has only been together for eight weeks, is great." "As a coach you always see the need to add new players," explained the Atlanta native. "It demands more on your players by adding competition to earn their spots. We've got our eyes on a few players most of who are T&T nationals but based abroad. We are looking to add in all areas even the goalkeeping department if we can." Stars' will visit Tobago United on Saturday in Round One Match Day Four of the 2010 Digicel Pro League and Underwood is expecting a keen contest. "The way our team is built; is to go forward and create chances playing attractive and exciting football and we will continue working on that, because our fans will appreciate it as well. Our next game is against Tobago United and everything I've heard about playing in Tobago, is that its tough to play there." Stars will travelled to Tobago United for a 4 pm meeting at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet on Saturday.