St Jago hit Kingston High for six in ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup

Livingston Scott

STAR Writer

St Jago High School climbed to the top of Zone E in the FLOW/ISSA Manning Cup football competition with a 6-0 hammering of Kingston High at Breezy Castle yesterday.

Second-half substitute Shaqon Bryan (67th, 86th, 88th) registered a hat-trick for the Spanish Town-based school, while Matthew Fisher (3rd, 12th) and Ryan Smart (44th) were the other scorers.

St Jago's Hayden Street was red-carded in added time, after denying a Kingston High player a clear goalscoring opportunity.

The result pushed the Glen Laing-coached team to 16 points, three clear of Wolmer's Boys', whose game against Bridgeport at the Dunbeholden playing field was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

St Jago had defeated Kingston High 8-1 in their first-round meeting, and from the opening whistle yesterday dominated and created chances almost at will, but Smart was especially wasteful.

Fisher got St Jago off the mark with a sweetly struck free kick from 20 yards after just three minutes. He then added a second nine minutes later when he got free inside the area to score from close range.

Smart finally got his name on the scoresheet a minute before the interval, after a series of missed scoring chances. He netted on the second attempt after the goalkeeper had denied his initial effort.

powerful striker

Laing introduced Bryan after the break and the striker went to work in a business-like manner. The speedy and powerful striker made it 4-0 moments after coming on, latching on to a sweet through ball from Fisher and firing past the Kingston High keeper.

Four minutes from time, he finished off a fine dribble by Smart, who passed for him to score from six yards. He completed his hat-trick two minutes later with a rasping shot from 12 yards.

Bryan, who had a hat-trick against Kingston High in the first meeting, said he wanted more, but did not get to start.

"The aim was to score more, but the coach decided to bench me today. But coach knows best and his decision always works out at the end," he said.

Meanwhile, Laing thought it was easy pickings for his side, but thought they were far from their best.

"We didn't play as good in the first half as we did in the second half. We are a better team than this, getting six goals is a formality. we should have scored more," he said.