Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Calabar's Lennox Creary (right) dribbles the ball away from Norman Manley's Kemar Lawrence (partly hidden) in action from their Manning Cup encounter at Stadium East yesterday. Calabar won 1-0. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Defending champions Calabar are now in prime position to qualify for the ISSA/Pepsi/JN Manning Cup semi-finals, following a hard-fought 1-0 win over last year's beaten finalists Norman Manley at the Stadium East field yesterday.

Waterford also kept their hopes of landing themselves a spot in the final four remotely alive when they downed former champions Wolmer's 2-1 in the day's opening fixture.

For the second year running, the Calabar wall proved just a bit too high for the Norman Manley team to scale and fans who came to see the fixture with revenge on their minds streamed out as time expired on yet another disappointing result.

Recently returned striker Cleyon Brown continues to make his presence felt for the Red Hills Road team by netting his second goal in two games. This time they found the back of the net for the title holder's in the 53rd minute. A free-kick conceded 20 yards from goal saw the ball rolled off for the striker, who then ran on to hit a trademark long-range blast through a clump of Norman Manley defenders and out of the reach of Norman Manley custodian Mark Ellis, who was throughly beaten for pace.

"It was a tough game. Norman Manley is a good team and it was really a tactical battle, so I must commend my players for sticking to the task," said a pleased David Hunt, coach of the Calabar team.

"I think we should have scored more goals today. We certainly got the opportunities but in the end it's nice to come away with the win," he added.

To be fair Norman Manely also had their opportunities to score, but their shot at securing an equaliser were greatly hampered when striker Romario Campbell was sent off in the 56th minute for a tackle on Calabar last man Robert Palmer.

Despite being a man-down the Alrick Clarke-coached team pressed for a goal late in the game, but the point just wasn't on the cards.

"We didn't play as we practised. Some of the players that refused to train during the week were also out of the line-up today," Clarke explained.

"We are not finishing well, we are afraid to kick, the guys just won't shoot to goal... We have one game remaining, they put themselves in this position and they'll have to dig themselves out," he added.

With one game remaining in the group Calabar move to six points while, Norman and Waterford each have three points and Wolmer's none.

Wolmer's failed to put away their early opportunities and paid the price when goals by Odain Martin (40th) and Mark Walters (63rd) effectively knocked them out the competition.

With the first half coming to a close Martin latched on to a ball that was poorly cleared by the Wolmer's back line and headed past Wolmer's second string keeper Stephen Samms. Waterford's top scorer Walters picked up a ball on the counter to fire past Samms deep into the second half, before defender Atiba Morgan pulled a goal back for Wolmer's in the 73rd minute.

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS

Wolmer's 1 Waterford 2

Calabar 1 Norman Manley 0

TODAY'S GAMES

Spanish Town vs Jamaica College at 1:00 p.m. at Stadium East

Charlie Smith vs Eltham at 3:00 p.m. at Stadium East