LACKLUSTRE EFFORT COSTS VOYAGEURS IN LOSS TO EAGLES

EDMONTON – Macky Singh is a patient man. The experienced and decorated head coach of the Portage College Voyageurs Men's Soccer Team knows that progress takes time and that improvements in both play and results don't happen overnight. He can forgive a lot, working with a fledgling squad of young players. What he can't forgive, however, is a lack of effort.

The Voyageurs played their first road game of the season on Sept. 21 against The King's University (TKU) Eagles and from their head coach's perspective, they left their hearts at home.

"We were just not in the game," said Singh, two days after a disappointing 4-0 loss. "We seemed laggard, tired, very slow in the game kind of thing. We just didn't perform…It was a poor performance."

Less than a week after playing a spirited contest against the Lakeland Rustlers in which they generated several glorious scoring chances, the Voyageurs seemed listless, failing to record a shot on net and only one near the goal. Meanwhile, the Eagles fired 19 shots – 11 on goal – with Nathan Peace, Linden Devries, and Jermaine Clarke (twice) finding the back of the net.

"It was the worst performance we've had this season…Hopefully that's the only one and we can learn from that," said Singh.

As he works with his coaching staff to prepare his troops for back-to-back home games Sept. 28 & 29 versus Northwestern Polytechnic, Singh knows that his athletes will have to buy in if improved results are going to start coming down the pike.

"We've got five days to train this week and we're really going to work hard on the same aspects of the game – our shape and our movement and our press kind of thing – but also the hunger and desire to want to complete," he said. "That has to come from within the players as well."

TKU Player of the Game: Jermaine Clarke

Portage Player of the Game: Cody Lawson