The cool murky Friday afternoon was brought to life by the emergence of the Excelsior team in their yellow and green outfits from the school gymnasium, to the blaring of horns and the beating of drums. It seemed as if the entire school population had stayed behind for the encounter instead of starting the weekend early. They were there at the Courtney Walsh Oval to support their team who were facing the mighty Norman Manley High in the LIME/ISSA Manning Cup Competition.
The cool murky Friday afternoon was brought to life by the emergence of the Excelsior team in their yellow and green outfits from the school gymnasium, to the blaring of horns and the beating of drums. It seemed as if the entire school population had stayed behind for the encounter instead of starting the weekend early. They were there at the Courtney Walsh Oval to support their team who were facing the mighty Norman Manley High in the LIME/ISSA Manning Cup Competition.
Spurred on by the massive show of support by their school mates, the Excelsior team took the game to the visiting Norman Manley team in the early stages getting off a few early shots that went either high or wide.
The game was interrupted in the 9th minute for about seven minutes, when a clash of heads between two opposing players left Jamohy Green with a bloodied mouth. He appeared to be unconscious immediately after the collision but was treated on the field before being rushed to hospital in a conscious state.
The players seemed a bit shaken up by the incident and took at little while to get back into the rhythm of the game. Excelsior settled quicker and the dangerous left footed Kareem Banton seized control of the midfield stringing passes together with Samuel Halliman and creating shooting chances for himself. His drive from a knockdown from a corner in the 23rd minute went just over the top.
It seemed everything good for Excelsior came through Banton, while Norman Manley were restricted to a few long range efforts that didn’t amount to much. Their tactics of playing long balls over the top was easily handled by the Excelsior defense being properly marshaled by captain Hishrock Francis.
The teams went in locked at 0-0 at half time, although Excelsior would have felt that based on the run of the game they should have been ahead.
The second half proved to be more of the same with Excelsior taking the game to Norman Manley who just could not get a handle on the game. After the 0-0 score at the end of the 90 minutes it was the visiting coach who was the happier of the two.
Leebert Halliman, coach of Excelsior was understandably disappointed – “We should have won the game,” he said. “Manley defended stoutly but there was a breakdown between the midfield and attack in both the first and second half but we should have converted at least one of the chances we created.”
“I am not pleased with the draw, Norman Manley didn’t create any chances.”
Alrick Clarke was happy to leave with a point – “It was a hard fought draw. To get a point away from home is better than none. The loss of our leading goal scorer (Jamohy Green) was a big setback for the team so early in the game. We are trying to learn to cope with injuries which is taking a toll on us now,” he said.
Photo: Kemoy Lewis (blue & white) battles Romaine Hosang for possession
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