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Boys' Town's Damion Benjamin (centre) in action last season.
- Ian Allen
Apart from Boys' Town's usual beautiful passing game and their dominance at home another feature noticeably absent this season is the presence of hard-tackling defensive midfielder Damion Benjamin.
Benjamin, who is referred to as Benji in football circles, has been forced to miss the start of the season after fracturing his right cheekbone during a preseason practice match against Humble Lion at the team's Collie Smith Drive home base.
"I went up and headed a ball and then came down on a player's elbow which fractured my cheekbone," Benjamin explained.
"I underwent surgery two weeks ago at the University Hospital of the West Indies where they placed two plates in my face, one over my eye and one right by the cheekbone to set it," he added.
Benjamin is not experiencing much by way of discomfort due to his injury, but is hurting as a result of the poor start his team has had to the 2011-2012 National Premier League campaign. The Red Brigade engaged in a fierce battle which literally went down to the final whistle last season. Boys' Town missed out on the title by a mere four points after going down to eventual winners Tivoli Gardens 1-0 in the final round, but have failed to record a win in their opening three matches of the current campaign.
The Andrew Price-coached team lost 1-0 to Reno in the opening round, before playing away to a 1-1 draw with promoted Montego Bay United, before coming from behind twice to salvage a 2-2 draw at home against Tivoli on the weekend.
"After finishing second last season, we haven't started out very well, so I am very disappointed," the 29-year-old Benjamin said.
"It is early in the season, so I won't kill them or anything, but hopefully come Sunday at Arnett (Gardens) they will do the basics and see what happens," he added.
The 11-year Premier League veteran, who started out at age 18 with Constant Spring before moving five seasons ago to Boys' Town, is desperate to get his hands on the only piece of silverware that has eluded him.
Price is cognisant of Benjamin's importance to the team, but hopes the other players will serve as adequate replacement.
"Damion (Benjamin) is a very influential player in the squad, but we believe that we have adequate replacements that can fill the void for him until he regains full fitness and is able to play," Price said.
