Phillip Williams, the head coach of last year’s beaten finalists St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS), says his team is slowly hitting top stride and are growing in confidence in this season’s Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association Manning Cup competition.

STATHS recorded their third-straight win, after an easy 9-0 victory over Tarrant High in Zone D at the Collie Smith Drive field on Thursday.

STATHS were led to victory courtesy of a hat-trick from Leon Brown in the first, fourth, and 72nd minutes. He received good support from Andre Salmon, who netted a double in the 44th and 47th minutes.

Jloyd Smith (55th), Ajetai Marshall (62nd) and substitute Taraine Hall (89th) were the other scorers.

“The performance for me is even more important than the scoreline because I think that my guys played a mature game as we passed the ball around just as how we trained and that is what I am looking for in my team,” said Williams.

“This win will also give us a lot more confidence because we scored nine goals and we had more than three players on the score sheet, which is good for us,” he said.

“It might come down to goal difference in terms of the group winners with Excelsior scoring an average of six goals per game and so when we get the ball to put in the back of the net, we just need to do that,” Williams said.

STATHS, who have been one of the most consistent teams in the Manning Cup, have been to the semi-finals in each of the previous five seasons.

The Bumper Hall-based institution won the Manning Cup in 1987 and Williams noted that they are very determined to go all the way this season.

“We are prepared to go as far as possible and to win the Manning Cup competition and so we are going to put our best foot forward,” said Williams.

“We definitely have a very strong squad because this programme has been building since 2017 and so each year we get stronger and each year we get deeper in terms of quality,” he said.

STATHS came out firing on all cylinders in the first half with Brown giving them a two-nil lead inside of five minutes with a couple of neat finishes.

Tarrant failed to contain the speed of the STATHS attackers who netted more goals to take a 4-0 lead at half-time.

Brown, who had an outstanding game, then notched his third goal midway the second period much to the delight of his home fans.

STATHS, who are now on nine points, lead the group on superior goal difference ahead of Excelsior, who are also nine points.

STATHS, who are yet to concede a goal this season, have scored 19 goals while Excelsior have netted 17 while conceding one.