By Daraine Luton, Freelance Writer PRIOR TO the start, one might have thought Jose Marti were on their way to winning this season's Pepsi/Sports Plus Manning Cup as their warm-up session was well synchronised.
It was quite a contrast to Charlie Smith's build-up.
HANDFUL OF GOALS
However, when it came to the real thing and the smoke cleared at the Tony Spaulding Complex yesterday last year's Walker Cup champions came away with a handful of goals, thrashing the St. Catherine team 5-0.
Charlie Smith got their goals from Joseph Smikle, Rameesh Simms and Keno Gordon, with Smikle (13th and 76th minutes) and Simms (26th and 75th minutes) hitting braces while Gordon's effort came on the stroke of half-time.
With the home crowd celebrating a 3-0 cushion at the half, the echo of gun shots sent spectators, reporters, players and officials scurrying for cover. While The Sunday Gleaner took refuge in Charlie Smith's dug-out area, referee Reynaldo Francis and his assistants had no alternative but to lay flat in the centre circle.
The second half started about eight minutes late after Francis decided there would be no restart without a police presence at the ground.
Carol Butler, who marshalled Charlie Smith in the absence of regular coach Jerome Waite, was confident that yesterday's win had all but secured a spot for his team in the second round.
"All we have to do is win our last match ... for STATHS and Dunoon it's a dog eat dog thing," Butler said.
STATHS should have faced off with Kingston Technical yesterday but the game was not played as no referees showed up for the game.
Dunoon and STATHS are locked on 13 points, the same as Charlie Smith. However, while both have relatively easy matches in Jose Marti and Kingston Technical the teams will clash to determine which team progresses to the second round, providing that Charlie Smith advance by beating Kingston Technical on Friday.
YESTERDAY'S RESULTS
St. Catherine 3 Donald Quarrie 0
St. George's 0 Calabar 0
Camperdown 1 Bridgeport 3
Ascot 2 Campion 1
Charlie Smith 5 Jose Marti 0
