Jose Marti hold Camperdown in dour 1-1 result
Camperdown High and Jose Marti High played to a dour 1-1 draw in their Group F ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup match at the Alpha Institute yesterday.
Substitute Romario Ricketts gave Camperdown High a 62nd-minute lead, but Earon Elliot earned a share of the points for Jose Marti, converting from the penalty spot in the 67th.
Camperdown missed a series of easy chances and the opportunity to stay in touch with the group leaders Wolmer’s Boys’ in the hunt for top spot. In fact, they dropped two crucial points but remained in second spot on 13 points
Wolmer’s, who defeated Edith Dalton James High 6-0, moved to 18 points with four rounds of games left.
The Lebert Halliman-coached Kingston Technical High edged Dunoon Technical 1-0 and jumped into third spot with seven points. Dunoon are fourth on six points. Jose Marti remained in fifth on five points.
Playing on a lovely surface at the Alpha Institute on South Camp Road, both Camperdown and Jose Marti turned in a poor display, which was very difficult on the eyes — to once again raise the topic of Jamaica’s overall poor standard of play.
Neither Camperdown nor Jose Marti deserved victory and it could be argued that neither team should progress to the second round, though Camperdown are on the verge of securing their berth.
If body language is anything to go by, then coaches Christopher Bender and Calvert Fitzgerald had a difficult time controlling their emotions with each bad play.
Camperdown High, who thrilled fans in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, when Bender played, looked a shadow of any of those teams.
“We are still in second position, but I am extremely disappointed with how the team played. One of the things with these youngsters is …they are on a high, having won 4-0 in their last game, and you could see the attitude even before the game. And I was warning them, and that’s what affected us today,” claimed Bender.
“The team is a young one but should be able to win games like these. We were actually playing bad and still got the lead and should have been able to hold on. They will bounce back and solidify themselves in second position,” said Bender.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald said that his team’s late arrival at the venue was the reason for their slow start.
“We came here knowing that in order to finish anywhere in the top two in the zone we had to get three points. We started a bit slowly because we arrived at the venue extremely late, so we didn’t get a proper warm-up, so we took a little time (to settle),” he explained.
“We pushed and tried to get the winner, but we didn’t get it; so we just have to satisfy with the point and hope that we can get three points in the other games coming,” said Fitzgerald.