Trinidad eyes top four spot as Rockettes face Hackney at MKM Arena

The Rockettes manager was speaking ahead of Sunday’s League Trophy match against Hackney at the MKM Arena, with a 2pm kick-off.

Bognor are in eighth spot in the league with only nine games played, mainly because of postponements, and have matches in hand over all of the other teams in the standings. If they win their games in hand it could see them move up to third in the table, and Trinidad adds that these fixtures are crucial.

He said: “We’ve played all of the top teams so all of the games in hand are against the bottom teams, so all the teams are below us. We have had a lot of injuries this season and obviously I’ve got seven players out this weekend, which isn’t great, through illness and long-term injuries and a couple of players are away as well.

“But if we can win our games in hand then we could go up into third. Top four is where we want to be in our first season in this league. But, having said that, we’ve done really well in cups.”

Trinidad admits he is concerned about his side’s goal threat but has praised his outfit’s defence. He said: “We don’t score enough goals to be honest with you. We’ve had forwards out injured so we are relying on a goal from midfield and wide, which is similar to probably the Bognor men’s team as well with them relying on their width to create and score goals.

“But at the minute our defence is good. We don’t really let in too many goals and we have two good goalkeepers to choose from which always helps. I’m not a defensive-minded coach, I’m more attacking but at the moment we have a good shape at the back. We would like to score more goals. If you look at our defeats this season, we aren’t getting hit for six.”

Trinidad hopes his star players will step up and find their best form for the rest of the season. He added: “Our captain Jade Widdowson and our midfielder Laura Barton are our key players in the team as well as top goal scorer Millie Carter. We hope they can continue their form for the remainder of the season. Those are the three key players that make our team tick when they play well, we play well.”

Back to the upcoming League Trophy clash and Trinidad says he hopes for big support for his side on Sunday. He said: “Hopefully we can get a crowd down there on Sunday when the youth are playing against Brighton in an 11am kick-off and then hopefully people will stay behind to watch our game against Hackney, which should be a really good game.”

Before the main game, Bognor Regis Town Youth u15 are playing Brighton & Hove Albion Women U14 in the SCFA Challenge Cup Semi-final, kick-off 11am.