The stage was set for a block buster between the North Street giants Kingston College and St. Georges College at Cloverly Pak last Saturday. Both teams had amassed nine points each from their previous three games in the Inter-Secondary Schools Association (ISSA)/LIME Schoolboy football competition so this game would propel the winner to sole leadership of the group and a decisive advantage in the race for zone honours and a place in the new LIME Super Cup.
After a delay of nearly half hour due to issues about crowd control as spectators that flooded the school, spilled over near to the playing area, the game finally got underway and it didn’t take long for the first goal.
Barely three minutes were on the clock when the KC defence was caught out by a back post cross from Shevon Stewart which was headed home by Akeem Prawl. While the fans in sky blue celebrated those in purple looked on in amazement at the ease with which their team had conceded.
Playing without their first string goalkeeper and captain Akeem Larmond, the KC team looked nervous and failed to put many passes together while the visitors seemed more comfortable on their neighbour’s patch.
The poor playing surface seemed to have an effect on the quality of play as both teams failed to produce the type of football that had been anticipated.
The first spark of attacking intent for KC came from stand in skipper Jazeel Thompson when his free kick from distance had the STGC keeper diving smartly to his left to save in the 18th minute.
But STGC was having the better of play and in the 24th minute Shaquille Graham had to rush to the edge of his area to save with his feet, blunting a fast attack from the Bertis Bell coached boys. A minute later Jahmarley Thomas tried to score from an acute angle when it was better to cross. KC was squarely on the back foot
There minutes before the break, St. Georges doubled their lead when Stewart turned his marker and fired into the corner of the net beyond the dive of Graham, sending their supporters into a frenzy.
Two minutes after the restart, Gregory Messam had a chance to extent the STGC lead but his scooped effort went just over the bar.
Ten minutes later, Thompson should have cut the KC deficit in half when a clearance from a corner fell kindly to him on the edge of the area, but his shot went wide of an open target.
Like the first half, the second failed to provide the quality football expected from these two great schools, the fans of the sky blues left KC much the happier crowd as Amoy Brown slammed the door shout in the 80th minute. The forward ran on to the end of a free kick and blasted home to give his team a famous 3-0 win.
Bertis Bell was no doubt pleased with the win, “We came here for three points today and we are happy to have gotten them. We want to win the zone so we want to win every game. We tried a few new players today and we will continue to give others a chance.”
KC coach Lenny “Teacha” Hyde said he will need to continue to do just what his name says, “We will have to continue to teach them the game, it is a young team so they have a lot to learn.”
Both teams will face each other again in this round at Winchester Park.
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