Wednesday could not have gone better for veteran coach Anthony Patrick, who masterminded two famous victories almost simultaneously.

Patrick guided his Racing United to a 1-0 win over Caribbean champions Mount Pleasant, handing them their first defeat of the season in the Jamaican Premier League (JPL).

But Patrick was not done. Following the JPL match, he raced from the Ferdie Neita Park in St Catherine to the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex in South St Andrew and took charge of St Catherine High’s 3-2 win over many-time champions Kingston College to book a spot in the Walker Cup final.

Racing United, in their second season in top-flight football, are second in the table on 25 points inclusive of seven wins, four draws and one defeat from 12 games. They are just one point adrift of leaders Montego Bay United on 26 points.

“We do a lot of work since we came to the Premier League team. We look at the Mount Pleasant team and their individuals and look at how they assist them and look at how they play and nullify all that,” Patrick told the Jamaica Observer. “We expect what they would come with, but they never get the opportunity and the chance to do that, and that was very important to my team. I want to say kudos to my team.”

Racing got their win courtesy of a late Damion Herrera goal in the 90+3 minute, piercing the seemingly impregnable Mount Pleasant juggernaut.

“The players really follow instructions. They really gave it their all. The couple of days we met and went through what we want to do, how we want to play them and ask each individual to play their role as much as possible.

“You know, funnily enough, today, when they were having their lunch and I said to a few of them, what’s your job today? And they answered fluently and I said, well done. Then let’s go for it and they really put out their all today,” Patrick pointed out.

But that was just the start of a remarkable day for the coach, as with that mission accomplished, he was off to Walker Cup semifinal duties. Luckily, his assistant Theo Brown, whom he coached to Manning Cup victory in 2006 while at Bridgeport, held firm until he reached.

When he arrived seven minutes into the second half, St Catherine were leading 2-1 and hanging on from a KC team coming at them in waves. After Patrick took over from Brown on the sidelines, Dwight Gentles notched his second goal in the 69th minute to make it 3-1 for St Catherine, who were able to hold on for the upset.

“When I leave the Racing game and I reach the Catherine team, seven minutes into the second half, we were leading 2-1. I must say kudos to my assistant coach, Theo Brown, my former player for Bridgeport and Waterhouse. I trust him a whole lot,” said Patrick.

“Theo Brown and I look at the last KC game against Calabar… and we see that this is what they wanted to do, this is how they’re going to play. We look at their two wingbacks and say, those are the two weak players,” he added.

“When I look at them, we see that they are not really very good ball-handlers. So, we said, we’re not going to play with a centre-forward. We’re going to play the false nine and catch them with the transition and we did that well today,” said Patrick.

The coach was full of praises for two-goal hero Dwight Gentles and the outstanding Kedean Young, whom he described as one of the best players in schoolboy football.

“I must say kudos to them for getting back into another final. Hopefully, we can get the job done for the school again and for the parish,” said Patrick.