The Gambia Under 17 team needed a miracle in order to make their first appearance in the African U-17 finals since 2005, and they got it on Saturday after demolishing Ghana 2-0 to progress on an away goal rule.

Saturday’s tie was a match, Gambia needed most as the shock eliminations of the Under 20s and Scorpions from their respective campaigns were still lingering in the minds of Scorpions faithful.

The failure of the Baby Scorpions would have also served a recipe for disaster to Gambian youth football, which is gradually carving a niche for itself.
After a 3-1 first leg defeat in Ghana, the the Gambia Football Association were having only two weeks to do all they could to avoid what many would have described as “the worst year” in Gambia football.

The Football Association made one big move that might have made the difference - the drafting in of the charismatic Belgian coach Paul Put to beef up the Baby Scorpions technical team. The Belgian was spotted on the team’s technical bench as the Gambian youth team consoled the hearts of Gambians. Shortly after the final whistle, everyone including the players turned to Paul Put chanting his name down to the dressing rooms.

The Belgian refused to take the credit, though many believe his influence greatly impact on the team’s Saturday performance. “The players take the credit. They are very happy about the qualification,” this was Paul Put’s answer to a question “Gambia’s qualification to Algeria - who takes credit?”

He added:

“I am happy about the victory but I am not happy about the performance because in the first half, I didn’t see a team that I trained for a week.”
“They were afraid to play may be because of the pressure.”  “But in the second half, we told them to be themselves”.

The Gambia team will be in the Algeria finals in March 2009, and the European tactician believes more work needs to be done ahead of the eight-team tournament.

“We have the capacity but it needs to be polished. We have to prepare the team by staging more friendly matches at the highest level and this will better prepare them for the Algeria tournament.