PHC coach Kyle Lightbourne yesterday stuck to his guns, insisting the Premier Division leaders were well within their "rights" to request their players to be "excused" from national team training until after March 2.

With Zebras currently in the hunt for a first quadruple crown (League, FA Cup, Martomere and Friendship Trophy) in 36 years, Lightbourne feels his players' main priority presently lies with their club - and not with the national team who play the second leg of their World Cup qualifier against Cayman Islands on March 30 in the Caribbean.

The plan to excuse PHC players from national squad training was revealed by Zebras' assistant coach Jack Castle in yesterday's Gazette. Castle was recently replaced by Kenny Thompson as assistant to senior national team coach Keith Tucker, whose tactics he had publicly criticised.

However, Lightbourne, a former national team coach, stressed that in no way was his club's decision intended to undermine the national programme - but rather to enable his players time to recover from fatigue having committed themselves to both club and country over the past several weeks.

"We asked the BFA for our players to be excused for one week because basically it's crunch time for us," Lightbourne said. "Some people may have complained but PHC players have an outstanding attendance record for national team training. They always turn up for training which consequently disrupts PHC's training sessions.

"I have always encouraged them to attend national team training because we want the national team to do well. But right now we just want our players to rest a bit because the fatigue is beginning to set in and I need my players to be one hundred percent fit."

Zebras currently have five players involved in the senior national set-up, all of whom have played a role in Bermuda's 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and the Premier Division club's season.

PHC raised the Martonmere Cup last November and are now within striking distance of a first league title in eight seasons.

Lightbourne said it would be a pity to see everything go to waste through bad decisons, having put in an enormous amount of effort up to this point.

"The players have worked extremely hard to get themselves in the position they are now in and as coach it's my responsibility to look out for their best interests as well as the best interests of the club," he added.

"If PHC weren't in this position, I wouldn't have a problem with them training with the national team. I told them to show up but not take part because at the moment they are flat out. My players showed on Sunday (against Devonshire Colts) that they are a bit fatigued and it's my responsibility to protect them.

"I feel PHC have the right to request to have their players excused from national team training. There's no national coach in the world who has the amount of access as we do here to their players."

Correction: The picture which appeared in the sports pages of Monday's Gazette, identified as Kevin Richards was actually Stanton Lewis. We apologise for the error.