Hope International takes gold in silver anniversary

Guardian General Hope International maintained their trend of copping the national premier division football title whenever the club is celebrating a milestone.

Last Friday, the 2019/2020 title was secured by the club, when their closet rivals, Sytsem Three were defeated by Je Belle, three goals to two.

Hope International were assured of the title on 47 points, with two rounds to go.

It also meant that Hope International were trumping the title during the year, when the club is commemorating its 25th year as a football organisation.

Hope International lifted the title on their 10th anniversary in 2005 and its 20th in 2015.

Leading the club to the 2019/2020 titkle, was Paul Farrell, who only last year, was a player.

Commenting on his first sojourn as the club’s head coach and winning the title, Farrell said that it came as a surprise to him.

“It was a bit unexpected to tell the truth, but it is hard to describe it in words,” Farrell declared.

He added that there were some structural changes that took place going into the 2019/2020 championships.

“We had to change the culture, in terms of the attitude towards training and preparatiosn for games… The players’ attitude needed to be changed and luckily the players bought into what we wanted and this is the end result,” Farrell explained.

Farrell revealed that they acknowledged that the team was getting on in age, so some changes in personnel had to be made.

“ We had an ageing squad so we had to revamp and get some more youthful players in “, the Hope International head coach related.

Farrell without thumping his chest, thought that his own attitude towards the players, was critical to the team morale.

“ To get this result is a reward and sacrifice as coaches…. What I brought as a coach was filtering down to the players, for example getting to training before them , get to games early and my attitude the guys adopted and here we are today as champions”, Farrell reasoned.

Hope International will in 2021 represent St Vincent and the Grenadines at the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield.