Colour clash
Three teams will be seeking to join champions Jamaica College in the semi-finals of the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup competition, as the final set of quarter-final games takes place today across a number of venues.
For fair play purposes, the organisers have opted for a 3:00 pm kick off time for all four games.
The highlight of today’s fixtures will be the Group H clash of the ‘colleges’ at Stadium East field, with Kingston College hoping to rub the sheen off Jamaica College in order to book their berth.
Jamaica College, the most successful school in the Manning Cup with 28 titles, have already secured a semi-final spot in their bid to register a 29th lien on the prestigious title, and fifth consecutively, following respective 2-0 and 1-0 scorelines over Bridgeport and Calabar High.
The Miguel Coley-coached team, like last year, are just about peaking at the right time after a fairly casual start to the season, and the perception is that they could once again prove hard to deny.
However, the highly touted title favourites Kingston College on four points will have a lot to say about that, and despite only needing to take a point of their Old Hope Road-based opponents, they will be gunning for a win in order to make safe their path to the coveted final four.
The Ludlow Bernard-coached team, who let slip a one-goal lead in a 1-1 stalemate with Calabar, returned to blank Bridgeport 3-0 on last and will be optimistic of a similar, if not, an even better performance in an encounter that could possibly be described as a preview of the 2017 Manning Cup final.
Calabar, on one point, will also be hunting a big win against the out-of-contention Bridgeport at Spanish Town Prison Oval in order to apply some pressure to Kingston College, should they falter against the champions.
Bridgeport currently sit at the foot of the standing without a point but despite that, they will be no walkover as they seek to end their Manning Cup campaign on a high heading into the Walker Cup knockout competition.
Meanwhile, any number can play in the evenly contested Group G where all four teams are on two points each with a similar goal difference of zero, after all played out 1-1 and a 0-0 stalemates.
Many-time champions St George’s College, who are usually well known for their fluid attacking style, will be up against a solid St Andrew Technical High School defensive unit, and it is anybody’s guess where the points will go at the Constant Spring field.
The same can be said of the contest between Holy Trinity High and St Catherine at Winchester Park, St George’s College. Holy Trinity came into the second-round knockout fixtures as the top-seeded team, but had to come from behind to get by Haile Selassie on penalty.
Since then, they have failed to show much, and with Anthony Patrick-coached St Catherine High not looking too bad a unit and riding high as the proverbial dark horse of the tournament, Holy Trinity will have to be on their toes if they intend to secure one of the two spots from the group to once again make the semi-finals.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Group G
St Andrew Tech vs St George’s
College @ Constant Spring
Field
Holy Trinity High vs St
Catherine High @ Winchester
Park
Group H
Kingston College vs Jamaica
College @ Stadium East field
Bridgeport High vs Calabar High
@ Prison Oval