Clarendon College (CC) had to dig deep to overcome a determined York Castle High whose DaCosta Cup season was hanging by a thread when the two teams met at the Drax Hall Football Stadium in St Ann on Wednesday.

Indeed, CC had to come from a goal down to win 2-1 in a match where all three goals were scored in the first half.

The 2018 DaCosta Cup champions went behind when they conceded an own goal in the 7th minute. However, Christopher Hull, who has been one of their standout players this season, equalised in the 26th minute before Devonti Hodges, son of former Reggae Boy Devon Hodges, powered home a header to effectively win the game for his team in the 37th minute.

Coach Lenny Hyde was pleased with the response of his team to going a goal down so early in the game.

“The response was excellent. I think they did well. It was tough. I saw them (York Castle) play and I told my team that this is a very good team, so we have to turn it up another notch.”

A heavy downpour just before the start of the match made the playing surface slippery and there were puddles of water in some areas of the pitch including the northern goal area, which made it difficult for both teams to play their usual passing game.

Hyde noted that the surface impacted his players.

“We didn’t get to pass the ball how we wanted because of the slippery surface, and they were pressing us also.”

The character shown by his boys to weather the York Castle storm brought joy to Hyde’s heart.

“We showed some character, that we wanted it more. Going down one-love in the first half, I think we showed some character and fought hard.

“That is the flip side of the Clarendon College team. We not only play, we fight to the end. They have that heart from long time, from my time, so it’s good to see these players showing that in the Clarendon College team,” he beamed.

The winners found themselves up against it in the second half as the desperate York Castle team gave it everything that they had. For Hyde, this win was particularly pleasing based on what he saw from his players who were facing their sternest test of the season.

“That’s how you coach the players. Sometimes you have to find ways to motivate them to get them to play like that. It’s not going to be pretty all the time, but we have to find ways to win games and I think they did it excellently,” Hyde said.

Clarendon College, who have six points from their two games, will battle Frome Technical who have a similar record, for group honours in their final round of 16 games at Glenmuir High on Saturday starting at 3:00pm and this one also promises to be a cracker.

“In order for us to reach where we want to reach, we have to win every game. That’s what the players know, and they are taking every game seriously.

“It’s a non-nonsense thing when we are preparing for a game like that. I saw the Frome team, I think they are a good team, they beat (York Castle), so it’s a tough game for us on Saturday,” said Hyde.