A stickler for details, Excelsior High coach Keon Broderick says a crucial video session on Thursday paved the way for their triumph in the Manning Cup final against the more fancied Jamaica College (JC) on Friday evening.

Broderick, who woke up on Saturday morning one of the happiest and proudest persons in the country, revealed to the Jamaica Observer that he identified two weaknesses in the seemingly impregnable JC juggernaut, and he exploited them perfectly as Excelsior won the tactical battle to lift the Manning Cup title.

“Trust me, we knew it was not going to be easy, but I mean hats off to the boys, but also hats off to the coaching staff. How we set up to play JC and everything that we planned it actually came to fruition,” said Broderick.

“When you look at the two goals we scored, those came out of the video session that we did the day before for the preparation for the game. We wanted to play in transition; we wanted to win the ball in JC’s half. So, we set up the correct press and if you look back, that press led to the first goal,” he said.

With JC sticking to their build-up from the back strategy, Excelsior pressed and found the breakthrough in the 57th minute.

JC goalkeeper Mashell Dennis played to Donald Stewart, who played to Dujoni Thompson who was facing his own goal. Excelsior’s Kivann Salmon pounced and toed the ball from Thompson and it rolled to prolific talisman Kimarley Scott who buried it expertly for his 20th goal of the season.

“We also knew that JC did not have the strongest of keepers. We also knew that JC defenders did not like to head the ball and did not find crosses well. So even on the throw-ins there was a deliberate attempt to throw the ball into the box, like a corner or a free kick, and so when you look at the second goal we saw that the keeper ran right under the ball and nobody from the JC defence wanted to head the ball and it landed right on one of my players feet and the rest is history,” said Broderick.

Excelsior’s second goal, which put the icing on the cake, came from a long throw from the impressive left-back Shamarie Chambers, which left goalkeeper Dennis in no-man’s land, allowing Salmon to tap home in the 90+6 minutes.

But despite Excelsior’s tactical acumen, JC did get a lot of chances and, had they taken them, it could have been a different ball game.

“It was a very good game, a good tactical game. I think JC threw some things at us where nobody else did throughout the entire season and the boys were able to cope with that,” Broderick pointed out.

But fortune favours the brave and the Eagles were brave in their executions and were deserved winners, ending a 21-year drought and capturing their eighth lien on the prestigious Manning Cup.

“It’s a tremendous feeling. It’s almost surreal to us. Sometimes I really think back and I’m wondering if we really are the Manning Cup champions.

“We worked for it, we worked very hard for it so it really doesn’t come as a surprise that we were able to win it. But it’s such a great thing for the school, the players, for the management team, the coaches and even for myself,” said Broderick, a past student of Excelsior.

“I hope this can push the school to become even better as an institution. Not only the football programme, but the school in general and the students. This can motivate a few students to become the best version of themselves,” he added.