A battle weary St. Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) will take on a well rested St. George’s College (STGC) in a play to the finish contest to decide who becomes the fourth team to advance to the semifinals of the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup competition today. Both teams played to a 0-0 scoreline a few weeks ago in their quarter final round tie and will now face each other one last time in a game that could go all the way to penalties, if necessary, to determine who will face Kingston College.
STGC were knocked out of the Walker Cup in the quarterfinals by Kingston College and missed out on the ISSA/FLOW Super Cup and so have had time to rest and prepare properly for this replay. This means that the Bertis Bell coached unit should be over most, if not all, injury concerns and are expected to be running on all cylinders come game time.
STATHS on the other hand have been busy, advancing to the semifinals of the Walker Cup before losing, also to Kingston College, then travelling to Montego Bay to play STETHS in the Super Cup in difficult conditions. That game went to penalties where STETHS prevailed leaving the Manning Cup as the lone focus for the Spanish Town Road based school.
While STGC has been one of the more successful teams in the recent history of the Manning Cup, they had a below par season last year and have had their struggles as well this term. With their season riding on the game tomorrow, Bell will be hoping that his charges are ready to score goals, a problem that has haunted them all season long. STATHS has one of the most difficult defence lines to break down and so the “Light Blues” need to report fully focused against a team that boasts arguably the best goalkeeper in schoolboy football this season.
For their part, STATHS must quickly overcome the disappointment of losing in the first round in their first Super Cup sojourn. They would have gained valuable experience from being a part of that competition and will need to take it over to the Manning Cup. Whilst they have been virtually impregnable at the back they have not been fearsome in attack and the coaching staff will be hoping that someone from within the team will hold his hand up and steer them into the semifinals
Weather permitting, the game will be played at the Constant Spring Field starting at 2:30pm .The other two semifinalists are defending champions Jamaica College and another well rested team in Holy Trinity High.
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