Not to­tal­ly hap­py af­ter plac­ing third in Tier II of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League last sea­son, Cen­tral-based Harlem Strik­ers re­deemed them­selves on Sat­ur­day (June 29) night.

A 2-0 vic­to­ry over ri­val De­fence Force in the Big Six fi­nal, the lone con­test at the Ari­ma Velo­drome on Sun­day night, crowned the Strik­ers the new Tier II cham­pi­on, left va­cant by To­bag­o­ni­ans FC Phoenix, who now plays in Tier I.

Strik­ers coach De­vorn Jorsling, a for­mer De­fence Force strik­er, now wants to fol­low in the foot­steps of their pre­de­ces­sor and play in the top-flight Tier I tour­na­ment.

“I think that by virtue of us win­ning the Tier II League, it would give us the bar­gain­ing pow­er to ap­proach cor­po­rate T&T for spon­sor­ship that will al­low us to qual­i­fy and play in the top-flight com­pe­ti­tion.

“Look­ing se­ri­ous­ly at the Tier I League, I be­lieve that with a few more play­ers, cou­pled with the fi­nances to keep the team func­tion­ing, the team will be able to hold its own in Tier I, I hon­est­ly be­lieve so,” Jorsling said yes­ter­day, hours af­ter his charges were crowned cham­pi­ons.

The Cen­tral-based team has en­dured a tu­mul­tuous time this sea­son, hav­ing to bat­tle tooth and nail for fund­ing that they nev­er got. De­spite this, how­ev­er, Jorsling, dri­ven by a de­sire to show­case him­self and his team as a force to be reck­oned with in lo­cal foot­ball, im­ple­ment­ed a few changes in his team’s at­tack that worked in their favour.

On Sat­ur­day night, his play­ers again ex­hib­it­ed that de­spite a slow start, when Jiron Fran­cis and Ryan Porter scored in the 53rd and 85th min­utes, re­spec­tive­ly, to seal the win.

“The De­fence Force did have their mo­ments in the game but we dealt with it well, as the guys raised their game to ex­e­cute what we have worked on. We went in­to the game pret­ty con­fi­dent be­cause we pre­pared well for the game.

“The play­ers all knew what their func­tions were and they ex­e­cut­ed. As a young coach, I want to test my abil­i­ty with the best coach­es in the lo­cal foot­ball and that is at the Tier I League. We are a com­mu­ni­ty team and with the right re­sources, I think we will be able to make an im­pact in the lo­cal top-flight tour­na­ment,” Jorsling said.

Sat­ur­day’s fi­nal was ex­pect­ed to fol­low a third-place play-off be­tween Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed and Queen’s Park at the same venue, but a de­ci­sion was tak­en not to play that game be­cause of the con­di­tion of the ground af­ter be­ing drenched by all-day rain.

Dwain Hen­ry, the Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed man­ag­er said he does not be­lieve that TTPFL of­fi­cials will both­er to have the third-place match played as there is no re­al sig­nif­i­cance.

“It is on­ly if the teams come to­geth­er on their own and de­cide to play it as a fete match, but oth­er than that, I can­not see the League of­fi­cials mak­ing arrange­ments to play this game be­cause the win­ner of the tour­na­ment has al­ready been de­cid­ed,” Hen­ry said.

Sat­ur­day’s (June 29) re­sult

Halem Strik­ers 2 (Jiron Fran­cis 53rd, Ryan Porter 85th) vs De­fence Force 0