Norman Manley's Norman Bailey (right) passes to a teammate in the first half of yesterday's opening ISSA Pepsi/Sports Plus Manning Cup game at Jarrett Park as St George's College's Ainsley Deer tries to cut it off. St George's won the game 1-0. -Paul Reid photoPaul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
FORMER CHAMPIONS St. George's College got the ISSA Pepsi/Sports Plus Manning Cup season off on good footing yesterday when they upset defending champions Norman Manley 1-0 in the opening game at Jarrett Park.
Despite conceding the majority of the play to the Maxfield Park-based school, a 66th minute penalty conversion by Damion Sawyers made all the difference.
Norman Manley played the final 45 minutes with just 10 men after captain and central defender Ryan Douglas was sent off by referee Orville Sancroft after picking up his second yellow card.
The first half was delayed by about 15 minutes after Sancroft took both teams off the field due to lightning.
The opening doubleheader was to have been played at the National Stadium, as it was the turn of the Manning Cup schools to host the games on the alternate system. They were however moved to Jarrett Park as, according to the competitions co-ordinator of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association, George Forbes, they could not afford the $750,000 usage fees.
In the second game of the afternoon, defending daCosta Cup champions Rusea's High edged Zone B rivals Grange Hill 1-0, thanks to a well-taken header from Jamie Ramsey in the 73rd minute.
That game was the more entertaining of the two as both teams played an up-tempo football which kept the play flowing from end to end.
Grange Hill, who won the zone last year and advanced to the last eight, had the better of the play for the first 60 minutes but, despite good chances by Renado Williams, Oniel Gooden and Andre Ferguson, they failed to capitalise.
Rusea's took the lead in the 27th minute of the second half when Ramsey beat goalkeeper Ricardo James with a glancing header from a right-side cross.
The champions should have scored on at least one more occasion late in the game.
Norman Manley's coach, Alrick Clarke, was less than happy with his team's start and told The Gleaner that he was "disappointed that we lost the game but at least we got the chance to see our weakness and strength and know what to work on."
On the other side, St Georges's second-year coach Andre Bell was a happy man, saying the win was "fantastic" and described it as a result of "determination" on the part of the players and a "big motivation" for the remainder of the season.
