Cavalier’s Laylor concerned about goal drought

Cavalier assistant coach David Laylor says he is deeply concerned about his team’s struggles in front of goal after failing to score in their opening two matches of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup.

Cavalier were held to their second straight 0-0 draw by Dominican Republic side Salcedo FC in their Group B encounter at the National Stadium on Thursday night, following a similar stalemate against Cibao in their opener.

“We are really concerned about it, and we are addressing it,” Laylor said. “We addressed some issues last night (Thursday) after the game, and so now we are looking at it seriously as we move forward. We are going to make some adjustments to the team to see if we can get some better results.”

Laylor admitted that the lack of goals is not a new problem, noting that the coaching staff had already identified the need for immediate changes. “We have played some practice games before, and we realised that we have fallen short in that area, so we are moving swiftly now to deal with that,” he said.

While acknowledging the attacking shortcomings, Laylor pointed to defensive improvements. “The good thing about it is that defensively we have improved because we were giving away a lot of goals last season, so now it is improving in that area,” he said.

The result leaves Cavalier third in Group B with two points from two matches. Cibao lead on goal difference with four points, the same as Salcedo FC.

Despite the slow start, Laylor remains optimistic about advancing.

“We are disappointed that we haven’t gotten a win out of two games, but at the end of the day, we still came away with something positive from it,” he said.

“It is football, and the leaders are on four points. At the end of the day, we have two games to play against two local teams, and so we just have to put our best foot forward because two wins can take us to eight points, and so we are very hopeful that we will go through to the next round of the competition.”

Cavalier will face Jamaica Premier League rivals Portmore United on September 3 and Mount Pleasant Academy on September 17.