Wolmer’s get it right in Walker Cup
WOLMER’S Boys restored lost pride of place in the 2013 schoolboy football season, winning the ISSA/LIME Walker Cup 4-2 on penalties over Excelsior High in the final at Constant Spring yesterday.
The game was forced to the dreaded penalties after both teams were locked 1-1 after regulation and extra time.
Smarting from their 3-2 final lost to Jamaica College in the Manning Cup Final on Saturday, Wolmer’s started the defence of their knockout title in a positive manner and duly took the lead through Kamario Osbourne in the 39th minute, who chipped the ball over the head of an advancing goalkeeper Jonah Morgan.
However, the boys from Mountain View were undaunted by going behind and returned for the second half swinging. And with 23 minutes remaining, reward came as they drew level from a well-taken free-kick by Kolorado Murray.
Missing out on the Manning Cup title, Wolmer’s coach Ludlow Bernard was delighted he was not ending the season empty-handed.
“With victory today we have restored some lost pride. It was good to see the effort exerted by the team this afternoon. I was really worried in the latter part of the second half when Excelsior started to dominate, but my players were quite adamant that they were not going home empty-handed.
“At one point it seemed as though Excelsior were playing for the game to go into penalty kicks, but that was a mistake on their part as I was certain that I have five sure penalty kickers in the team… it is the end of a long season and it is a consolation. I am generally disappointed that we did not do much better but the victory is good for the programme as this year we went to two finals and were able to only capture one title,” said Bernard.
Losing coach Leebert Halliman said it was very much a disappointing season for his team “but my players gave it their best shot”.
“It is just one of those things. After falling behind just before half-time we returned for the second half with a plan and drew level, but were not able to consolidate our good second-half effort further after Murray had brought us level in the 77th minute,” he said.
