The Yuletide season is usually associated with gifts, but Jamaica College (JC) Head Coach Raymond Watson says they didn’t take what was offered to them by Excelsior, and they suffered the consequences.

JC entered the ISSA/WATA Manning Cup final as the only unbeaten team in the competition, but they suffered a deflating 2-0 defeat to Excelsior and saw their hopes of winning a record-extending 29th title evaporate.

“First and foremost, congratulations to Excelsior. In terms of the game, we got a whole plethora of chances,” Watson told the Sunday Observer.

“We dominated the game, should have scored, could have scored. We got our Christmas gifts and didn’t take them and we gave them.

“I just have a laugh the amount of chances that we got. Simple chances, and once we had scored, I think the game would have been out of Excelsior’s reach. But they took their chances.”

It was a very intense, tactical encounter between two very good teams, but in the end Excelsior stuck to their beliefs, pressed and pressed and broke down JC.

But Watson says he saw Excelsior’s tactics and tried relaying the information to his players, but because of the noise in the stadium, they didn’t hear.

“I saw it coming,” he said. “I was trying to instruct my players to play and just abandon the system because Excelsior was trying to pounce, trying to set us up. I kept saying, bypass, bypass. The defender said he didn’t hear me and we gave them basically a goal.”

Once in possession, JC normally play out from the back, but the ball was stolen off a player and Kimarley Scott pounced and scored in the 57th minute.

“And then chaos set in from that,” Watson said. “Players couldn’t hear the instructions. So they were just living off momentum. But congratulations to Excelsior.”

That goal came at a pivotal time in the match and it changed both teams’ tactics as Excelsior could stop chasing the game and be more compact in defence while JC was out of character as time flew by.

Then, with eight minutes added to normal time, Excelsior put the icing on the cake, as Shamarie Chambers’ umpteenth long throw created havoc in the JC box and Kivann Salmon tapped home in the sixth minute of second half stoppage time.

Excelsior’s drought was over as wild celebrations started in the stands with flags waving and champagne popping. The boys from Mountain View were thirsty no more as they won their first title in 21 years.

Jamaica College Head Coach Raymond Watson (right) congratulates his Excelsior High School counterpart Keon Broderick, after the ISSA/WATA Manning Cup final at the National Stadum on Friday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)