Harding stars for St George's

Forward Romario Harding netted a brilliant hat-trick to lead former champions St George's College to 4-0 victory over St Jago and a spot in the quarterfinals of the ISSA-FLOW Manning Cup competition.

Harding scored his goals in the third, 42nd and 61st minutes as St George's won the two-way tie 5-0 on aggregate at the Constant Sports Complex yesterday.

Former Kingston College player Jahmal Pusey also scored for the Light Blues in the 36th minute.

St George's assistant coach, Marcel 'Fuzzy' Gayle, said the team is finding its best form at the right time.

"We are getting better with each game that we play," said Gayle. "We are not conceding any goals, and we have been working on that aspect of our game to ensure that we keep clean sheets.

"There are all quality teams in the next round of the competition, but we are going to take it one team at a time because we want to continue playing good football," he said.

DISAPPOINTING PERFORMANCE

Meanwhile, St Jago's coach, Davian Ferguson, was disappointed with his team's performance.

"I think that St George's really managed things well. They were leading the tie 1-0 from the first game and they came and they played deep and the caught us on the break," said Ferguson.

Meanwhile, in the opening match of the double-header, Holy Trinity High also booked their spot in the quarter finals of the competition after an exciting 4-2 penalty kicks victory over Haile Selassie High.

The Devon Anderson-coached Holy Trinity, who trailed 2-0 entering yesterday's second leg, won the second leg 2-0 to send the two-way tie into penalties.

Fabrizzio Burton in the 68th minute and Travar Littlejohn in the 70th minute were the scorers for Holy Trinity.

Anderson said he was happy with his team's performance because they had to pull out all to the stops to secure the victory.

"It was a tough game because my players had to really dig deep to score two goals," said Anderson.

St Catherine also advanced to the quarter finals after 3-1 aggregate victory over Hydel High in their return game at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday. St Catherine won the first leg 2-0.