Manchester High and William Knibb Memorial are hoping to salvage their season when they kick-start the ISSA Ben Francis Cup football competition this afternoon.

The match is scheduled for Manchester High, starting at 3:00.

Both teams were eliminated from the daCosta Cup at the round-of-16 stage and will be looking for redemption in the second-tier Ben Francis Cup that has been reduced by two teams following the withdrawal of Maldon High and Maggotty High.

Just two games are to be played in the first round as the withdrawals resulted in former champions Garvey Maceo High and Manning’s School receiving byes to the next round.

The teams that fail to progress to the semi-finals of the daCosta Cup will join the Ben Francis Cup title hunt at the quarter-final stage.

Neither Manchester High nor William Knibb Memorial has won a title at the Under-19 level but the coaches of both teams think they have a shot at getting to the final.

Manchester High were among the most impressive throughout the earlier stages of the rural area schoolboy football season, scoring over 70 goals in their first round.

Conversely, William Knibb had to fight all the way to the round of 16, placing second in their first-round group, then advancing from the round of 32 with just four points before losing both games at that stage.

Johnoy Chambers, head coach of Manchester High, said he felt his team underperformed in the round of 16.

“We are disappointed,” Chambers told the Jamaica Observer Wednesday.

“In my opinion we dominated most of the games. However, football is a result game and we didn’t get the desired result. As a team and a school we were extremely disappointed, [but] nonetheless we don’t have time to cry over spilled milk — we have to clean it up and move on,” he said.

“We have a mission entitled ‘December 20’ [date of the Ben Francis Cup final]. We will give the Ben Francis everything we got,” the Manchester High coach added.

Dewight Jeremiah, head coach of William Knibb Memorial, has taken them to two quarter-finals. He said playing in the competition gives his youthful squad exposure and experience that should put them in good stead for next season.

“[The Ben Francis Cup] is just another chance for silverware. But when you have a school that has not won silverware in the competition, any chance to be able to win one is a big one for us,” Jeremiah told the Observer.

“I just want them to be able to play as much games as possible. And we really set out to make sure we qualified for the Ben Francis as well, or to be at the stage where, if we fell out of the daCosta cup, we would have been in the Ben Francis… a lot more chance to play because it’s a very young team,” the William Knibb coach explained.

— Paul A Reid

JEREMIAH… when you have a school that has not won silverware in the competition, any chance to be able to win one is a big one for us

William Knibb Memorial’s Prince Bernard (left) and Cedric Titus High’s Shavon Gray battle for the ball during the ISSA daCosta Cup Zone D match in Martha Brae, Trelawny, on September 19, 2025. (Photo: Paul Reid)