Hydel High’s Assistant Coach Oshane Tomlinson was full of praise for his team after they secured qualification to the second round of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Manning Cup with a 2-0 win over Charlie Smith on Wednesday despite playing majority of the match with 10 men at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.

Two reckless challenges from Gabriel Sebourne saw the midfielder sent off inside 33 minutes, which meant Hydel would play a man short with close to an hour to play.

However, they somehow still managed to control the game until the finish and were rewarded by a double strike from D’Sean Henry, including a stunning effort before half-time, which found the top corner.

Tomlinson credited Hydel for their performance despite not having 11 players to compete for the 90 minutes.

“We showed great strength to overcome that challenge. Not a lot of teams can do that, so it shows great mental resilience that even with 10 men, to come out with a two-nil victory, so very happy with that,” said Tomlinson.

Hydel move to 21 points for second in Group A with a game to play, and Tomlinson is hoping his team finds better rhythm as they head into the next round of the competition.

“It’s been up and down, performances here and there, but definitely going into the second round we want to get it clicking. We need to be sharper; the chances we got today, we should be finishing those, so definitely that’s our aim.”

Third-placed Charlie Smith, on 15 points, are now unlikely to qualify for the next round and Assistant Coach Byron Earl was disappointed with the team’s effort, especially with the one-man advantage.

“We lost shape and we lost focus because we were thinking of the [Hydel] player who got the red card, so right away, everything went downhill,” he said.

Kingston College will finish as Group A winners after thrashing Penwood 5-1 to move to 25 points. Calabar crash out of the competition after a 2-2 draw with Camperdown, which leaves them fourth on 14 points.

In Group F, St George’s secured group honours with a 1-0 win over Jose Marti. Campion College also qualified for the next round with a 2-1 victory over Ardenne, while bottom-placed Pembroke Hall remain winless after a 2-1 loss to Waterford.