DESPITE going down to 10 players early in their ISSA/Wata Champions Cup quarter-final game against McGrath High at Montego Bay Sports Complex on Friday, Jamaica College’s (JC) Head Coach Davion Ferguson said they never thought they were out of the game.

Two goals in the second half from skipper Dyllan John gave the two-time champions a 2-0 win and a place in the semi-final set for Wednesday at the National Stadium.

JC was reduced to 10 in the 14th minute when goalkeeper Taywayne Lynch was sent off by Referee Christopher Mason for handing the ball outside the area.

McGrath had only themselves to blame for not winning the game thereafter as — despite creating several scoring chances, coupled with a handful of errors by substitute goalkeeper Adriano Kitson — they failed to make full use of their advantage.

John and JC punished McGrath for their wastefulness when he scored the opening goal in the 60th minute, finishing off a counter-attack with a shot into the far-left corner and adding a second in time added on, from the other side, also into the far corner.

Ferguson described the decision to send off Lynch as “a very questionable call very early in the game”, but praised his team which he said showed character.

“The attitude of the boys was, ‘We’re not going to lose this one.’ They came and they really made some adjustments,” he said. “We knew we were a little bit ahead in terms of keeping possession of the ball so, although they had a man [more than] us, I know we had the quality to really maintain our composure and really get the game in the second half.”

Ferguson says their plans worked out.

“We tried to go for that goal and we got it through Dyllan John, and then in the end we killed the game off with another one from Dyllan, but kudos to the boys — I think they played an excellent game here today,” he said.

McGrath Head Coach Jermaine Thomas said they would take the game in stride and now focus on the semi-finals of the daCosta Cup, during which they will face Ocho Rios High.

“This was a tough one,” he said. “We got the chances, we played well, the youngsters acquitted themselves well. It’s unfair to really knock them but, guess what? You got to score if you want to win matches, and we created several opportunities tonight — I think open opportunities — but we just never took them. Even when they had 11 players we were creating chances, and we’re going to be focusing on that.”

Thomas rued their missed chances.

“We just never turned up tonight with our scoring boots, and that threw us off,” he reasoned. “I thought we created some good chances but, guess what? It’s now the semi-finals in the daCosta Cup and we are already in it. I thought we came here and gave a good showing of ourselves; and people saw that us coming here was not a fluke, it wasn’t a mistake. We played one of the better teams from the urban area, from the Manning Cup, and I thought we stood up and played tonight.”

— Paul A. Reid