St George’s College (STGC) ground out a 2-0 win over Kingston Technical High and jumped to the top of Group D of the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup football competition yesterday.

Playing on a hard and bumpy surface, the “Light Blues” had to fight hard for their victory with goals by Akeem Robotham and Nathaniel Campbell in the 18th and 84th minutes.

In the other Group D encounters, Vauxhall High edged Denham Town High 1-0 and Tarrant High held St Catherine High to a 1-1 draw.

STGC moved to six points, the same as Vauxhall High, but are on top with a superior goal difference of plus nine which was enhanced by their 7-0 thrashing of Tarrant High in their first match. Vauxhall have a plus-two goal difference. St Catherine High are third on four points with Tarrant sitting fourth on a point. Both Kingston Technical and Denham Town are pointless.

Playing on a terrible field on Deanery Road, the home ground of Kingston Technical, the normally smooth and slick- moving St George’s College were made to fight hard for victory in humid conditions in which referee Kevin Lamey enforced two water breaks.

STGC, who last won the Manning Cup in 2012, are a team in transition and although clearly the better team, they had to work for the points.

Akeem Robotham opened the scoring for St George’s College in the 18th minute with a low left-footer that cannoned off the upright. At that moment it seemed STGC would have ran away with the game, but Kingston Technical held their own and won fairly comfortably afterwards.

But then another live wire, Nathaniel Campbell, scored a beauty from 20 metres and made the points safe for STGC. Campbell collected a ball just outside the box and unleashed a swerving shot that sailed past the outstretched hands of goalkeeper Roge Williams in the 84th minute.

Head coach Neville Bell said he was not making excuses for his team’s hard-fought victory on the playing surface.

“We did what we had to do. We came here to win the match and we won the match. The youngsters attempted to do the right thing,” said Bell.

“It is always tough when you play on a field like this and even if we had practised on this it would have been a tough game. KT (Kingston Technical) technically had the right idea; they didn’t give us a chance to settle to play. But I am happy. Thank God we got the win,” he added.

Karume Huie, head coach of Kingston Technical, believed inexperience showed up his team, but he was proud of the fight they showed.

“We went down 1-0 early and we never caved in. We still put up a resistance, but I think going forward we will have to look at that; we don’t come here to play a jersey, we come here to play an eleven, so we will have to build on that,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Camperdown High blanked St Mary’s College 2-0 in Group C and moved to six points, the same as Hydel High, who clipped Cumberland High 1-0. Waterford are third in the group following their 2-0 win over Meadowbrook High.

In Group F, Holy Trinity High whipped Ascot High 5-1, St Jago defeated Clan Carthy 4-2, and Jose Marti and Edith Dalton James drew 0-0.

Holy Trinity lead the group with six points ahead of Jose Marti on four with St Jago and Clan Carthy on three points, with Edith Dalton on a point and Ascot yet to get off the mark.