- Photo by Adrian Frater
Clement Ratcliff, headmaster of daCosta Cup champions Glenmuir High and chairman of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) (right), celebrates with Glenmuir's captain, Ricardo Cousins second left), during the presentation ceremony after yesterday's final at Jarrett Park. At left is Peter Hibbert of Sports Plus while at second right is John Burrowes, marketing director of Desnoes and Geddes. Glenmuir won the cup for the first time by beating former champions Frome 2-0.
Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
GLENMUIR HIGH finally lifted the coveted ISSA Pepsi/Sports Plus daCosta Cup trophy after dethroning last season's champions, Frome Technical, 2-0 in yesterday's final at Jarrett Park.
National junior representative Stephen Morrissey scored twice in the first half to lead the Jackie Walters-coached team to their first hold on the trophy after five previous trips to the final.
The players wore black arm bands and dedicated the victory to former player Khymian 'Apple' Ellington, a member of the team that lost in the 2001 final, who was shot and killed in Clarendon last year.
Glenmuir dominated a nervous looking Frome team that took a long time to settled down and never threatened to score until well into the second half.
Frome's vaunted defence that allowed only two goals all season was found wanting and it was only the brilliance of goalkeeper Triston Sommerville and faulty finishing by the Glenmuir players that kept the score decent.
Winning coach Walters said his team deserved the win as it had made a commitment as far back as over 10 months ago.
"I think they must be congratulated, they made a commitment from January that they wanted to take this Cup and I think they put in the necessary work and they deserve it," Walters said.
He said the game plan going into the game was simple.
NO BETTER PLACE
"Emphasise our strength which is to score goals and we have proven this time and time again and the players came here today committed to get the goals and to win the game. There is no better place than Jarrett Park and against the defending champions," he said.
For the second half, he said the instructions were "to not concede any goals and ... maintain composure".
"One must understand at this level, schoolboy football, that we will expect these things to happen but we must understand that we must stay focused and not allow the opponents to get at you," he said.
Boysie Nicholson, Frome's coach, said after going down by two goals before the halftime break it "was always going to be a very difficult task to come back ... but we played spiritedly in the second half and came out much more aggressive but still did not create the kind of opportunities to put this Glenmuir team under any pressure."
He had high praise for the Clarendon team which he conceded was the best in the competition but said he wanted his players to come out fighting in the second half and that they did.
POOR DEFENSIVE
Nicholson said overall, the team "played poor defensively and we did not create the kind of opportunities especially in midfield and up front, but take nothing away from the boys as we did well in the second half but got nothing to show for it as we did not create the opportunities".
Carnell Learmond missed a wide-open chance in as early as the third minute when he shot under the body of Sommerville after slicing his way through the Frome defence.
Dushane Ashman missed a wide open goal in the 11th minute after Sommerville had mistimed a corner and left his net unprotected but Morrissey was on target in the 30th when he curled a shot around the far left-hand post and well out of the custodian's reach and into the back of the net.
Cornelius Henry should have scored a minute later when he latched on to a mistake by Tristan Cunningham but his shot flew inches over the crossbar.
Sommerville pulled of a brilliant save in the 38th minute when he blocked Learmond's point-blank shot but he was left unprotected two minutes into time added on by his defence and Morrissey raced in to the put his team two up.
Frome had the greater ball possession in the second half but for two outstanding long-range efforts which were tipped for corners, they never troubled the Glenmuir goalkeeper.
Glenmuir also created a number of chances in the second half but Sommerville came up with some outstanding saves to deny them.
