Photo: STATHS forward Shamir Gibbs is being hounded by Kingston College defender Davian shakes during their Manning Cup quarter final game at the Constant Spring Field on Wednesday. The game ended 1-1.
Both games in Group J of the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup competition ended in a 1-1 draw yesterday to leave the group wide open at the start of the quarter final stage, as Kingston College had to come from behind to rescue a point from St. Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) and Bridgeport High had to do the same against Charlie Smith.
Kingston College coach Ludlow Bernard chose to rest a few of his regular starters probably with the Super Cup quarter finals which is a few days away on his mind, but the players brought in as replacements failed to spark in the first half.
Andre McCatty who was given his first start at centre forward should have put KC ahead in only the second minute when Omar Thompson broke down the left flank and delivered an excellent cross but the burly forward failed to make proper contact with his header and the chance was lost.
The best chance of the first half for STATHS fell to Nolvado Foster who was one on one with the KC custodian Jahvanni Grant, but he failed to beat the goalkeeper who advanced well to cut the angle and smother the ball.
Denilson Simpson, in one of his rare forays down the right, created an opportunity for himself but the angle was too tight and his shot ricocheted off the goalkeeper Jaedine White and into play.
McCatty had another chance to put KC ahead late in the first half after Thompson did good work to shake off his marker and drive to the byline inside the area before cutting back the ball. But McCatty was always leading back on the shot and skied his effort from 8 yards.
Clearly unhappy with the performance of his team in the first half, Bernard rang the changes, bringing in Rashwan Mackison and Trayvone Reid to add more punch up front but it was STATHS who would be celebrating the first goal of the contest.
Grant failed to hold onto a ball floated in from a corner kick and STATHS captain Trimane Shaw swept home the loose ball to give his team the lead in the 67th minute.
After the goal the STATHS team dropped deeper to protect their lead and reduce the space that KC had to work in.
Desperate to get something from the game, Bernard made a tactical adjustment, going with three defenders at the back, dropping Fabian Grant back to centre half and pushing his captain Javain Brown into midfield. The switch paid huge dividends for KC as Grant made a lung busting run down the right flank and centred to Thompson who made no mistake, heading home from close range to make it 1-1 in the 82nd minute.
There were no more clear cut opportunities in the match as both teams had to settle for a point.
Alrick Clarke, head coach of STATHS was unhappy with the result as he thought his team had what it took the get all three points.
“I have seen KC play and we know we could have done it, but it is a new team, it is a young team. I am happy with the way they played, the energy they gave us. We have been resting for quite a while now, we were a bit match rusty.
Clarke also fancies his team’s chances of advancing to the semi-final.
“Once you are here, you have to put that on your mind and then you have to go out there and perform but we can’t count our chickens before they hatch, but most definitely we are here to compete not to participate,” he said confidently.
Ludlow Bernard was pleased with the fight shown by his team against a gritty STATHS outfit.
“We really had to dig deep against a stubborn St. Andrew Technical team. I think we were kinda unfortunate to go behind seeing that we would have had the upper hand, but then again I would have been even more disappointed with our first half display, it was really pathetic from a couple of our players.
“However we stuck to the task, we kept probing, we kept going into the wide areas. We made the adjustments when we went down 1-0 and it proved very, very critical for us to get a goal out of one of the many raids we would have made down the flanks,” he explained.
Bernard is not worried about his team advancing to the second round as he believes things are still in the balance.
“I am still really fancying the chances, it could have been a lot worse than what it is now. We are probably hoping that results in other games would tend to go in our favour, but destiny is still in our own hands and we figure that with 7 points we can still go through.”
In the day’s second encounter, Charlie Smith went ahead in the first half when a looped effort from Kemar James landed in the back of the net in the 18th minute.
The former champions seemed to have all three points in the bag, which would have given them a decided advantage in the group, but they were pegged back when Kyle Ming drew Bridgeport level from the penalty spot, a minute into time added on.
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