Photo: Rashawn Mackison drives through the midfield for Kingston College while being pursued by Wayne Wedderburn of Charlie Smith. Renaldo Wright of Charlie Smith is looking on. The Group J Manning Cup quarter final match ended 1-1.
It is anyone’s guess as to who will advance from Group J of the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup competition as both games in the group ended in 1-1 stalemates yet again on Thursday at the Constant Spring Field.
In the day’s first game, St. Andrew Technical and Bridgeport High ended 1-1 before Kingston College and Charlie Smith High played out a similar result. It was the replica of match day one in the group which means that all teams in the group have it all to play for next week.
St. Andrew Technical were guilty of conceding yet another late goal, this time in the 88th minute when Kyle Ming scored directly from a free kick, after they appeared home and dry against former champions Bridgeport High. The STATHS goal had come early in the game when Napoleon Rochester put them ahead after just five minutes.
STAHTS had also led KC up to the 82nd minute last week and coach Alrick Clarke must now be wondering what it will take for his team to concentrate for 90 minutes and see out a game.
The feature game on Thursday should have gone the way of the favourites Kingston College who were let down by their strikers yet again.
After shading the first half, KC grabbed the lead in the 42nd minute through captain Javain Brown who forced home a rebound after a corner kick.
Terrible defending by KC on a set play of their own, saw the Charlie Smith captain, Romario Williams drawing his team level, three minutes after the restart.
KC created a series of chances after that, but some of their top players were guilty of missing very easy chances.
Their leading scorer Rashawn Mackison and Renato Campbell both missed guilt-edged chances to put KC in front after a dominant second half performance.
A frustrated Ludlow Bernard could not hide his disappointment.
“It is really, really painstaking, just when you really need some of the fifty-odd goals you would have scored in the earlier rounds. We still continue to create a lot of opportunities but we are failing to convert, it is really, really frustrating.”
“But at the end of the day, we are down but we are not out, it is still very much an even affair and we still fancy our chances going into the next game.”
For the final game in the group, it is clear to Bernard what needs to be done, “We have to try and ensure we have a very attacking unit out there…we probably have to find our best goal scoring prospects in order to complete the game,” he warned.
The final set of games will be played next Wednesday, November 9th.
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