Head coach of the Waterford High School football team Kevin Reid says that, despite the inexperience of his players, he believes he has unearthed a capable team that could do well very well in the ongoing Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association Digicel Manning Cup competition.

This was after Waterford defeated one of the tournament's favourites, St George's College, 3-2 in their Group A encounter at Waterford on Wednesday.

Raniel Stephenson scored all three goals for Waterford in the first, 10th and 51st minutes, while St George's Brian Burkett and Rasheed Hanns got on the score sheet in minutes 18 and 40, respectively.

"We played a spirited game today. I mean, coming up against St George's which is definitely a good team and so we have to put things in place. I told my guys to stick to our game plan, don't worry about St George's game plan and that was exactly what the guys did and we came out with a big win," Reid told the Jamaica Observer.

He continued: "We are just taking one step at a time, one game at a time. We have been out of Manning Cup for about three to four years and so all of my guys out here is their first Manning Cup game and so they are inexperience. But we are taking it one game at a time and they should get better with each game."

Waterford made their intentions clear with a spirited attacking unit which led to immediate success, as Stephenson easily tapped home from a loose ball inside of the box in the first minute of play.

Stephenson then grabbed his and his team's second goal of the match in the 10th minute when he found the back of the net from close range.

That second goal seemed to have awakened the St George's team as the visitors took over control of the game, taking threatening shots at Waterford's goal which resulted in Burkett pulling one back for St George's in the 18th minute from the penalty spot.

In the 40th minute, Hanns watched his 30 yards out free kick slip through the hands of Waterford's goalkeeper Alphanso Salmon to level the score at 2-2 going into the break.

It was a ding-dong battle on the resumption as both teams went hard at each other in search of breaking the tie. Stephenson, with the third goal of the evening, put Waterford again in the lead with another close-range strike in the 51st minute.

St George's came close to equalising on numerous occasions but the strikers failed to find the back of the net.

Waterford too had chances of increasing their lead, but the very ambitious Stepheson wasted good scoring opportunities.

— Ruddy Allen