met with widespread approval in Silver City, The Royal Gazette has learned.

In an anonymous letter to the editor, a faction within the squad hit out on a number of points, but sports committee chairman Dianne Hunt brushed aside their gripes as being nothing but a vendetta against the new coach.

Hunt assured that management was satisfied with their current coaching programme under Bascome and said that the great enthusiasm demonstrated by players at training, combined with the overwhelming response from fans also during training, showed that things were progressing extremely well.

In the letter, `players' fired strong criticism at sports committee member Eugene Dean, who apparently played a key role in the appointment, and questioned the assignment of former coach Larry Smith and Gary Mallory as assistants to Bascome.

They also felt that the timing of Bascome's appointment, until early this month, was delayed only to allow the transfer deadline to pass in order to prevent players from transferring before the roster deadline.

"Mr. Dean knew there was going to be an exodus of players if Mr. Bascome was named coach and we believe that this is why the announcement was delayed,'' wrote the `players'. The letter added that the `players' had reservations about Mr. Bascome's loyalty and referred to his track record in support of those doubts, but yet they respected his "technical ability to coach.'' Their feeling was that coaches with strong ties at Somerset such as Dennis Brown, Josef Gooden, Kenny Thompson and Norbert Simons should have been approached for the position from the beginning.

Despite their disapproval of Bascome, the `players' reckoned that as long as he is "serious'' he would be supported, and they urged any players wishing to take advantage of the later transfer date to stay put.

But Hunt remained steadfast and felt that the criticism was unwarranted at a time when management was amazed by the excitement surrounding the programme.

"I can say that I was present at the meeting when we introduced Andrew to the players...time was of the essence. He was formally introduced as head coach and both the president and I spoke to the players. Larry Smith was also there,'' said Hunt.

"I didn't get any indication that anyone had any negative feelings towards Andrew, unless I had blinders on. We have 40 players training on a regular basis and a whole lot of people are watching training; it's phenomenal to see this occurring during training. It's sounds like a personal vendetta that these players have. I'm only saying that they didn't come to me or the president with this view.'' Hunt added that the club had held proper interviews for the post and that they thought that Bascome was the best man for the job.

Bascome was hired to quickly bring the club back to the top flight but the recent withdrawal of Hotels International from the league has thrust them back into the picture.

The Bermuda Football Association now has to decide whether it will rescind Somerset's relegation to the Second Division -- they were ninth last season -- as they did in the case of St. David's when Hotels last jumped ship, or stage a unique play-off between the Trojans and last season's third-placed Second Division club, Paget.

ANDREW BASCOME -- Attracting a lot of attention.