Ricky Mallory yesterday pledged his future to relegated PHC and vowed to help them regain their First Division status.

And the veteran striker-cum-midfielder called on his team-mates to do the same.

"I feel that you go down as a team so everybody should stay and put the effort in to get the side back up again,'' he said.

But it is now almost certain that coach Cecil Robinson, who took over in November after the side's troubled start, will not be at the helm next season.

Robinson, who on the weekend said he would take the summer to consider his position, has told his players he no longer has enough time to commit to the side.

"We had a meeting about it last night,'' said Mallory.

"A few of the players expressed the opinion that they would like him to stay.

"I think he did well. I thanked him for not giving up on us when things were going badly. But I think he will step down. He said he would love to stay but he has a lot of work commitments.'' Mallory admitted he took the side's demotion to the Second Divisiion, confirmed by their 6-3 defeat at Southampton on Sunday and Devonshire Cougars' victory over Vasco, as hard as anybody.

It was his first season with the club after returning to the Island following three years at school in Philadelphia. A former Dandy Town player, he opted to join PHC to honour a bet with his late father, who had donned the black and white stripes years before.

"I feel like I've taken relegation particularly badly, especially as I was playing in memory of my father,'' he said. "If he was looking down now, I feel as though it would have disappointed him. "I also think I've let down the other players and the fans. They might have expected me to score more goals. I could have done a little better.'' Mallory, who suffered with a hamstring injury in the latter stages of the season, may be a little hard on himself.

He grabbed his sixth strike of the season at Southampton Oval on Sunday, making him the side's top scorer -- and that mainly from a midfield position.

And, in truth, he joined a club which, although one of the top names in Island soccer, could do little about a deluge of summer departures.

A total of 20 players applied for transfers during the off-season and 18 followed through to complete moves to leave then new coach Johnny Nusum with a severely depleted squad.

When Nusum was unable to get the required response from the players, he quit -- and his predecessor Jack Castle took over for a couple of weeks before Robinson was promoted to first-team coach.

"I'm sure all the changes early on did affect the players,'' agreed Mallory.

"Some were saying that they were not getting coached properly. "But next season it looks like we will have a new coach again and the players will have to get behind him.'' Ricky Mallory