Bermuda Hogges ‘keeper Timmy Figureido has urged his team-mates to “step it up a level” against the Cincinnati Kings tonight following the disappointment of two successive defeats at the hands of the Harrisburg City Islanders last week.

The Somerset Trojans stalwart was arguably the Hogges’ man-of-the-match in the second of their 1-0 defeats at the National Sports Centre on April 29, pulling off a collection of tremendous saves to keep the Harrisburg forwards at bay as the local side’s defenders struggled to cope with the unrelenting pressure.

And though content with his own performance, Figureido admitted yesterday the team would have to play better as a unit if they wanted to achieve the aim of finishing their debut United Soccer League season around mid-table.

“We need to improve in all areas to be completely honest,” said the amiable Saltus schoolteacher.

“I was happy enough with the way I played against Harrisburg — I made a few decent saves, though I thought my distribution could have been a bit better. I’m definitely a better ‘keeper now than I was in my mid-20s just because of the experience I now have and though I wouldn’t say that the Hogges have given me a new lease of life exactly, I’m definitely very happy to be involved in a very important piece of history for Bermuda football.

“If I can pave the way for other young ‘keepers with aspirations of playing professionally, then I’ll have achieved what I set out to.

“For now though the main thing from a team perspective is to get everybody playing well at the same time and to make sure everybody is doing their job properly.

“Against Harrisburg not enough of us had good games and we were on the back foot most of the time.

“We know what to expect in this league. We know the teams we come up against are going to be tough, physical and there’ll be plenty of rough and tumble.

“They’ll also be very direct. Harrisburg were just putting together two or three passes before knocking the ball over the top for their strikers to chase. So our defenders know what’s coming and I’m going to have to be pretty alert all season to anticipate the danger and close down the space.

“Hopefully we’ll have a much improved performance against Cincinatti and we can look ahead to the rest of the season with confidence.”

Meanwhile, the Kings settled into their Grotto Bay Hotel last night having arrived on the Island at around 5 p.m..

Coached by Englishman John Pickup — who’s been based in the US for more than ten years after a playing career with teams like Blackburn Rovers, Chester City and Wigan Athletic in the UK — the Kings made the Second Division play-offs last year but are now very much in transition having lost most of their players in the off-season to Division One sides.

They’ve played three games so far this year, losing to defending champions the Richmond Kickers (1-0) and the Cleveland City Stars (2-1) before picking up their first win last week against Crystal Palace Baltimore (1-0).

Speaking en route to Bermuda yesterday, Pickup admitted he was disappointed by the number of players he lost during the winter.

“It’s certainly frustrating because we got to the play-offs last year and I thought that with one or two additions we would have a realistic chance of winning the title this year.

“But I suppose it’s inevitable when you do well in our league that the bigger First Division clubs will come knocking at the door. So I’ve lost almost 90 percent of last year’s team and have basically had to start from scratch.

“Pre-season also tends to be very short, so it’s not a surprise to me that we’ve got off to a slow start and I don’t think we’ll be playing at our very best for a while yet.

“But saying that we’ve got two games in quick succession (against the Hogges tonight and the Cleveland City Stars on Saturday) and if we win both of those, all of a sudden we’ll have turned our season around in only a few days.

“Most of the new players I’ve got this season are fresh out of college looking for a long professional career. I’ve certainly got some talent to work with, but it’s going to take a little while to mould them together into a decent side.

“A lot of teams in this league have a fairly high turnover of players, so although we don’t know very much about the Hogges, I’m very used to turning up at games and adjusting tactics in response to what you see in front of you.

“We don’t have the money to scout teams like we would like to, but if we play to our potential against the Hogges, I think we’ve got a good chance of taking three points.”