St Jago High took a step forward for second round honours in the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/LIME Manning Cup football competition after defeating Calabar High 2-1 in Group F at Red Hills Road yesterday.

It was a key fixture for either team which needed to win in order to move ahead and stay closer to leaders Hydel, who trounced Eltham High 7-1 to top the group with 17 points.

However, St Jago, who started the game on 10 points, join Calabar on 13 and moved into second place with a better goal difference after taking the game by the scruff of the neck from early with Ronaldo Howard putting them ahead in the 23rd minute.

Jerk into action after falling behind from some luke warn play, Calabar began to put more effort into their play and nine minutes later were rewarded for some industrious play, especially on the flanks, with the equaliser from Mikel Graham.

They continued to push forward and on the stroke of half-time created another good opportunity to go ahead albeit from the penalty spot. However, skipper Lenworth Reckford muffed the chance to put his team ahead.

Having been let off the hook in the first half, St Jago returned more resolute but Calabar were also in a similar mood. With 56 minutes of play completed St Jago’s coach Shavar Thomas pulled goalscorer Howard and introduced Shaqan Bryan. Two minutes later he scored to put St Jago back in front, a lead which lasted to the end, despite both teams wasting several good goalscoring chances.

Thomas, the former Reggae Boy, said that he was encouraged by the result. “It was one that we planned for as we had lost the first two games. But our objective is to reach the second round. Inspite of today’s win there is still a lot of work to be done in this very competitive group.”

Losing coach Bradley Stewart was not too critical of his players’ lack of intensity. “…what was happening to us was when we got into the final third we were expected to make some runs to pull open that defensive unit and that was not happening for us today,” he explained.