Denham Town High made it four wins in a row at the Social Development Commission/Edward Seaga Cup when they scored a 1-0 win over Tivoli Gardens High in the final of the three-team competition at the Edward Seaga Sports Complex on Saturday.

Both teams advanced to the final of the round-robin tournament of which Kingston High was the other participant, with the defending champions coming out winners with a first-half goal from Shavar Kennedy.

The preseason Manning Cup tournament played among the three West Kingston-based schools is in its fourth year with Denham Town continuing to show their dominance.

Tivoli Gardens were no pushover in the final, however, and controlled the game in the early stages, but failed to make their possession count in the final third.

Denham Town took a while to find their feet, but were able to exert their presence as the contest wore on. They scored shortly before half-time when Kennedy reacted best to a free kick floated into the box and poked the ball home at the far post.

Both teams showed good enterprise in the second half despite no further goals in the game, as Denham Town continued to exert their dominance in the competition.

Tournament organiser Dennis “Den Den” Hutchinson was pleased with the outcome of the fourth staging.

“I am happy with the turnout of spectators and the football that we have seen this year. For some reason Denham Town continues to dominate this particular competition, but the other teams did well.

“The tournament continues to grow and we are happy for that as we try to impact the schools in West Kingston through football,” he said.

Kimathi-Nkrumah, head coach for Denham Town, was pleased with his team’s showing, especially with the limited preparation that they have had so far.

“We weren’t prepared tactically for this tournament, neither were they prepared physically either, our endurance level is nowhere where we want it to be so to play in such an intense tournament was rough. It was also a rivalry game between us and Tivoli.

“It wasn’t the performance we were looking for, but we will take the win nonetheless. We played extremely hard and won the game 1-0,” he noted.

Tivoli Gardens High Head Coach Christopher Nicholas took the positives away from the competition.

“I thought the boys performed very well from defence to midfield, [but] we have a problem getting the balls to our strikers. I think they understand the concept of how we want them to play now.

“We had more ball possession, the movement of the players was good, we are getting them to focus now, we want them to focus on possession, I think the goals will come. We have a very young team so we know the goals will come,” said Nicholas.

In addition to the award of the trophy to the winning team, a number of persons who have served in sports and sports administration in Tivoli Gardens were honoured for their contributions.

Terrence McDonald, Hector Pinnock, Allan, Jones, Christopher Nicholas, Andrade Wright, Shawn Morris, Cleopatra Grant, Dorrett Williams, Daphne Hurge, Joscelyn Richards, and Brian Rose were among those honoured for their contribution to sports administration in the community.