Wolmer's captain, Jermaine Gardner, holds off Tivoli's Florizel Baker during yesterday's Pepsi/Sports Plus Manning Cup action at Ferdie Neita Park. Wolmer's won 2-1.
-Ricardo Makyn
Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
A 25TH-MINUTE strike by Ricardo Ximines earned defending champion Excelsior a hard fought 1-0 win over Calabar High in the opening game of the Pepsi/Sports Plus Manning Cup second round at Ferdie Neita Park yesterday.
In the feature encounter, Wolmer's High held off Tivoli Gardens 2-1 after being outplayed for the most of the game to top Group One on goal difference.
In the opening game, Excelsior dominated the first half and looked as if they would run out easy winners following a beautiful strike from the talented Ximines. He collected a ball on his chest with his back to goal and in one motion turned and fired past the outstretched hands of Jermaine Gordon in the Calabar goal.
The green and black-clad boys from Red Hills Road didn't lie down and rallied late in the second half and should have at least shared the points with a couple of chances.
"When you are champions, everybody comes to beat you," said Leebert Halliman, coach of Excel-sior. "They played extra hard and gave us a run for our money. But as champions, we won't go down without a fight."
ONE CHANCE
David Hunt, the losing coach of Calabar, said Excelsior "Got one chance and scored. We gave their forward too much space."
"We got two opportunities late in the game and could have scored," he said.
Wolmer's, through goals from Paul Campbell (16th) and the ever dangerous Dehmer Creary (33rd), went 2-0 up against the run of play and held the rampaging Tivoli Gardens at bay for the entire second half. Tivoli had earlier pulled back a goal in the 45th minute through the prolific Jermain Allen who converted a penalty to raise the hopes of the Tivoli fans.
In fact, Allen, the competition's leading marksman, could have registered a hat-trick in the first half but he could not find his shooting boots on the day.
The introduction of Ricardo Hyman gave Wolmer's the opportunity to counter-attack more effectively and he had a couple of close shaves. He hit the crossbar and missed a couple of half chances to put the game out of Tivoli's reach.
OUTPLAYED
Winning coach Cassell Reynolds said his team was outplayed by Tivoli even after scoring both goals.
"Although we scored two in the first half, technically, Tivoli were on top," Reynold's said. "We got our act together in the second half and defended stoutly. I think Tivoli outplayed us but I am comfortable with the performance."
His counterpart, Dave Clarke, said his team lost to a very organised Wolmer's unit.
