The ISSA/LIME Walker Cup Competition will begin on Friday October 18th and Saturday October 19th at the Constant Spring Football field with the quarter-final round and should serve up four interesting games over the two days.
The ISSA/LIME Walker Cup Competition will begin on Friday October 18th and Saturday October 19th at the Constant Spring Football field with the quarter-final round and should serve up four interesting games over the two days.
On Friday starting at 1pm, Holy Trinity who easily won Group G will battle in form Charlie Smith, a team that has beaten both defending Manning Cup champions St. Georges College (STGC) and Camperdown to secure the best second place spot and sneak into this year’s competition.
Even though Holy Trinity were group winners, Charlie Smith will start as slight favourites based on the scalps they have taken in the past few weeks. Holy Trinity will be relying on Shomar Dillon who is the leading goal scorer in the Manning Cup so far this season with 15 goals. Bebeto McDonald will be the main threat once against for Charlie Smith.
The second game of the double header is between defending Walker Cup Champions Wolmer’s Boys, winners of Group C and one of this year’s favourites for the Manning Cup and Spanish Town who won Group F when they clipped Kingston College 1-0 last weekend. Wolmer’s showed just how deep they were in their last Manning Cup game, when they came away 6-1 winners over St. Catherine while using a number of second string players.
But this is knockout football and Spanish Town will want to show that they are no pushovers. This game may prove to be a feisty encounter as both teams hunt a semi-final spot.
On Saturday, the first game of the double header will be a repeat of last year’s Manning Cup final between St. Georges College, winners of a very competitive Group D and Hydel High, winners of Group A. Neither team has managed to reach the same level of football that they achieved last year, however it should still prove to be a very interesting game between two good teams.
Hydel will want to make up for being completely over run in the final last year but may find the going tough, especially against STGC standout Cardel Benbow who has continued to lead his team with distinction this term.
After the first game, fans dare not move as the final, quarter final, may prove to be the best of the bunch. Excelsior High, a dark horse to lift the Manning Cup crown, came out winners of Group B against the likes of Norman Manley who they beat 3-1 away after a 0-0 draw at home. This shows how much work the Leebert Halliman coached team has put in to get to this point. They will face off against this year’s corporate area form team, Jamaica College (JC), who swept their zone, winning all matches they have played to date.
The wily and experienced Junior Flemming has been almost impossible to contain this season and Excelsior will certainly have their hands full with the JC captain.
When asked about his chances against JC, the Excelsior coach Halliman said, “goal scoring has been a problem all season but hopefully fortunes change as we reach this stage of the season.
“JC are probably the best team in the competition but we will use this as motivation. Flemming will be a player to reckon with as he is a national player with a wealth of experience so we will have to play as a team to counter him.”
Excelsior will be without influential midfielder Colorado Murray who misses the game through the accumulation of yellow cards.
The semi-finals of the competition will be played at the same venue on Tuesday October 22.
Photo: Cardel Benbow of St. Georges College
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