Despite losing their first two games of the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition, Dunoon Park Technical head coach Jahmia Pettigrew is still hopeful that his team can have a fairly successful campaign this season.

Their second loss came at the hands of perennial semifinalists St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) at Bumper Hall on Saturday as their paper-thin squad of exactly eleven players failed to withstand the pressure of the Phillip Williams-coached team and succumbed to a 5-nil loss in the end.

They conceded three goals in the first half and two in the second but were unwavering in their efforts to represent themselves and their school in wet and muddy conditions as a result of heavy afternoon showers before and during the match.

Pettigrew spoke proudly of the efforts of his players and said that the display from the eleven boys was a representation of the school’s motto.

“I’m really proud of these boys and the effort that they are putting in. We only had eleven players and they played to the motto of the school, “Diligence with persistence for excellence”. They tried to fight it out at the end of the day, with eleven players.”

With there still being time to add players to the roster, Pettigrew is hoping to have a bigger and stronger squad for their next encounter when they travel to Tarrant High school on Tuesday.

He explained the reasons for the very small squad he currently has.

“Based on registration and the results and attendance criteria that ISSA mandates, hopefully the next game we will have added players registered.”

Having failed to advance to the second round of the competition for a few years now, Pettigrew is hoping that this is the season of change.

“Our objective is to get out of the first round. We know we will be adding numbers for the other games, so our objective remains the same, that we want to get out of the group.”

And he believes that the additions to the squad will help to make that happen.

“We have a couple of transfer students coming in that can add some more punch to the team,” he revealed.

Despite the optimism that Pettigrew has, he will know that the immediate task at hand is a challenging one against a Tarrant team that has already won one of their two opening games and will also have advanced to the second round as their minimum target for the season.