By Howard Walker, Staff ReporterSEVENTEEN-TIME champions St George's College (STGC) took charge of Group Three with a decisive but unimpressive 3-0 win over Meadowbrook in their opening second rounds game of the Pepsi/Sports Plus Manning Cup at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday.
In the feature game, Bridgeport High came from behind to hold Spanish Town 1-1 in one of the most competitive and exciting games of the season. Goals by Kurt Raymond (26th) and Raymond Thompson (80th) sandwiched an own goal from Andre Ingram enabling St George's to go top of the group on three points, two ahead of the St. Catherine teams Spanish Town and Bridgeport High.
Winning coach Neville 'Bertis' Bell said he was happy with the victory but said his team needed to improve in front of goal.
"We still have problems in front of goal and we should have finished the game from the first half," Bell said.
Paul Elliot, coach of Meadowbrook, said his team played an awful game.
"My boys just didn't play the game they should have played. A 3-0 loss to St George's is not a true reflection of the game," Elliot said.
Group Three is considered to be one of the weakest as none of the four teams made it to the Walker Cup semi-finals and it showed in the opening game as neither St George's or Meadowbrook gave the spectators anything to cheer about.
It was a lacklustre affair throughout with Kurt Raymond lobbing the goalkeeper from the edge of the box to open up the game in the 26th minute.
Meadowbrook had a few half chances but that was it from a tepid team performance. The half ended 1-0.
The second half was the same as the spectators were getting restless, even questioning if these team were from Kingston and when the final whistle came it was met by loud cheers.
In contrast, the feature game between Spanish Town and Bridgeport was exciting and evenly matched. Spanish Town took the lead in the 56th minute courtesy of Ranique Rowe who converted directly from the corner flag with the help of the Bridgeport custodian Kemail Davis who fumbled the ball into his own net.
Bridgeport equalised in the 63rd minute through Theophilus Samuels with a well-taken goal after another goalkeeping blunder. Spanish Town's goalkeeper, Jermain Jones, was beaten to a ball by a Bridgeport player who played back the ball into the path of Samuels who floated the ball over the 'keeper and a couple of defenders straight into the back of the net.
Both team went for the win knowing that St George's had three points in the bag and what a treat it was for the spectators. Exciting end-to-end stuff couldn't produce the winning goal, but it was worth going miles to see and a fair result in the end.
"I said this from early out in the season, once we start converting our chances everything would be smooth sailing. It was a wonderful game," said Anthony Patrick coach of Bridgeport, the 2001 champions.
Anthony Thompson, coach of Spanish Town, said he was satisfied with the result.
"I am pleased with how we performed and I think we can top the group," Thompson said.
In Group Two action, the dangerous Mona clipped Dunoon Technical 1-0 to go top of a tough zone with three points. On Tuesday, high-riding Camperdown were held to a 0-0 draw by STATHS.
