Multiple-time Manning Cup winning Coach Leebert Halliman believes a lack of commitment and discipline are hampering Camperdown High’s progress in schoolboy football.

Camperdown suffered a 2-0 defeat to St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in their ISSA/Digicel Manning cup group game on Wednesday at Collie Smith Drive. Ajetai Marshall in the 14th minute and Christiano Brown in the 90th minute gave STATHS the win.

Halliman, who won the 1986 title with STATHS and the 2004 and 2005 titles with Excelsior, is in his second year at three-time champions Camperdown.

However, the school last won the title in 1982 and hasn’t made it to the quarter-finals of the Manning Cup since 2019.

He says coaching the current players is a major challenge due to their poor attitude.

“The discipline in our team is playing a big role,” Halliman told the Observer.

“Nobody is committed to Camperdown. They just attend — they don’t want to represent and that’s a big problem.

“Another problem is that we have weak homes, so it transmits into the school and teachers are having problems, even us as coaches have problem. It’s a work in a progress. We have to show a lot of patience, work harder and hopefully as things goes on, things will change.”

Halliman says for Camperdown to relive the glory days, everyone with a connection to the school must play a part.

“We don’t have many resources at Camperdown and you have to have people who want to play football in your school and that’s not at Camperdown at the moment. It’s like you’re using basket to carry water and because they think I’m Halliman, I can put plastic in it and carry it, but it doesn’t work like that,” he said.

“The past students and all the stakeholders have to come together and support the programme, or else it’s wasting my money. Every year we buy boots, we feed them and it’s not going forward. We need resources, we [need] support from the past students. You might see KC (Kingston College) and JC (Jamaica College) do well but their past students support the programme and that’s why they’re successful.”

It’s a more positive outlook for STATHS Head Coach Philip Williams, whose teams is unbeaten in their three games, keeping three clean sheets in the process. However, the team has scored just three goals so far, compared to 19 at this stage in 2023. Williams, though, says he’s not overly concerned at the moment.

“Defensive strength is fundamental to the STATHS programme,” Williams said.

“The youngsters know they have to be strong defensively. We know have to set up so that we’re hard to beat or score on. That’s the foundation of a team we can build on and we always pride ourselves on our defensive solidity.

“The reality is that this is a young team, so we have to be patient with them. It’s very difficult in terms of what we know we can do with the status of the programme so it’s difficult to be patient. But the reality is the reality. They’re youngsters, it’s a tough zone but giving a good account of themselves so far.”

Wednesday’s results

•STATHS 2, Camperdown 0

•Hydel 4, Clan Carthy 0

•Eltham 5, Dunoon Park

•Vauxhall 0, Calabar 0

Thursday’s fixtures

•Pembroke Hall vs Ascot (1:15 pm) @ Jamaica College

•Jamaica College vs Excelsior @ Jamaica College

•Wolmer’s vs St Mary’s College @ Mico

•Tivoli Gardens vs St Jago @ Tivoli

•Edith Dalton James vs Denham Town @ Edith Dalton James