by JAKE NUTTING

It isn’t often that a team follows up one of their best performances of the year with one of their absolute worst, but that’s exactly how Tampa Bay Rowdies Head Coach Stuart Campbell described his team’s swing from the encouraging showing in the fall opener to the embarrassing 4-1 loss in Carolina last week.

“I think it’s a kick up the back side for us,” an expasperated Campbell said after Friday’s training session. “We’ve been performing pretty well all season. We should’ve won more, we could’ve won more but we didn’t. We’ve had too many ties, especially at home. We’ve obviously only lost one at home, but we’ve drawn far too many. It’s a tough mindset when you know you’re playing well, you know you’re creating chances. You’ve got the mindset it’s gonna come, it’s gonna come. And then to come crashing back down to earth last Saturday in Carolina is a wakeup call.”

Campbell didn’t beat around the bush when discussing the loss to Carolina, a result made even more frustrating by the team drawing with a weak Jacksonville Armada FC in their previous two league matches despite dominating in nearly every way possible.

“We were bloody rubbish on in Carolina. I hold my hands up,” he said. “We’re 12 games in and that’s the first real game where we as a group hold our hands up and say we weren’t good enough. You have nights like that, but it gets magnified because we haven’t take care of business the previous week at home against Jacksonville. Regardless of how well we’ve played, regardless of the chances we’ve created, we tied. Even the Jacksonville game away, if we’d taken care of business there, then Saturday in Carolina is just a bad day at the office. But because we’ve tied the two previous games it feels worse than what is.”

Injuries to regular center backs Tamika Mkandawire and Neil Collins gave Frankie Sanfilippo and Stefan Antonijevic their first starts of the year in Carolina and both players struggled coming in, leaving Campbell irked and hopeful that bench players can better seize their shot at playing time this week. Tam will be a gametime decision for Saturday’s match with Puerto Rico FC, while Collins will be unavailable.

“We’ve got a decent roster. I kept telling them, ‘Be ready, be ready. You’ll get your chance.’ And then a few people have had the chance and they haven’t quite taken it. There’s going to be changes tomorrow night. It’s up to them to come in now and lay a marker down and go out and take their opportunities.”

Campbell challenged players across the board to raise their level after last week’s disappointment. After some “harsh words” on Saturday and a meeting on Monday, he’s satisfied with the squad’s response in training this week. Friday’s session saw them play a lively small-sided scrimmage in which players were active, vocal and produced many quality finishes. Campbell believed it was one of their best sessions since the start of the season.

Now the players just need to translate that positive form to the field this Saturday for their first matchup with NASL expansion side Puerto Rico FC.

“I was really interested to see the reaction on Monday morning after our meeting and it’s been great all week,” Campbell said. “I’ve just said to the players the level and intensity they’ve trained at is great, but we have to bring it on a Saturday night now.’ We’ve got to stand up and be counted. Now’s the time for us to stand up.

“We’re all in this together. We all win together, lose together, and unfortunately we’ve tied too many together. We know we’re a good team. I’m sick and tired at the end of the game opposing teams telling us what a good team we are. They’ve come and taken points off us. It’s up to us now.”