By JOEL BAILEY Saturday, July 24 2010

TRINIDAD and Tobago football team coach Russell Latapy stated on Wednesday night that he was impressed with the squad’s 4-1 win over Antigua and Barbuda, in a friendly international at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya.

“I think it was a good, solid performance,” said Latapy. “Most importantly, there are certain aspects of the game that we’re working on and I was quite pleased with a lot of the things that I saw. But this is preparation for the Digicel tournament and there are still a lot of things that we need to work on.”

When asked what areas he was concerned about, Latapy replied: “Just our general all-round game. We’re still making a lot of basic errors so if we can cut out these errors, we’ll give ourselves a better chance.”

Kevon Carter netted twice for Trinidad and Tobago, while Kerry Baptiste and Devon Jorsling chipped in with a goal apiece.

Concerning Carter’s role on the right flank, Latapy noted: “We have a player in Kevon who is very quick and with a great deal of ability. If we were getting joy down the right side through Kevon, then we’ll keep it down the right side and create as much goal scoring opportunities.” Latapy continued: “What we intend to do is play to our strengths and, if Kevon is our strength down the right side, as he was, then we’ll keep going down the right and see how much goals we can score.”

Pertaining to the use of midfielder Ataullah Guerra on the left wing, Latapy said: “We’re giving everybody an opportunity. We’re in the process of rebuilding.

“I thought Ataullah played well and I thought the whole team played well. I don’t want to single out any particular player. But I can understand because Ataullah is not a natural left-sided player.”

Latapy used six substitutes in the second half, and he stressed: “I want to have the opportunity to look at most of our players in international situations.

“I thought, in making this amount of changes, it disrupts the game a little bit. But I think some of these players need to know how to play at this level and get the experience.”

Latapy also revealed the squad has confirmed friendly encounters against Belize, Guyana and Jamaica before their Digicel campaign begins in October.