Rusea's ready to respond after shock defeat

Principal of Rusea’s High School Linvern Wright said that although he was a bit disappointed after suffering defeat in the first leg of their second round ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup clash to 32nd seed Mile Gully High School on Wednesday,  he believes the defending champions will get the job done to advance on Saturday.

Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat at the Mile Gully Community Centre was a deja vu moment for Rusea's, who lost 1-0 to Browns Town in the first leg of the second round last season, before winning the second leg and going on to lift the title.

“It (defeat was) disappointing but not shocking, Barry Watson is a good coach. I don’t think that zone they (Mile Gully) are coming from is a weak zone either. The best third-place team means they would have come through matches because if you look at their results, they are not bad… and I mean they may have played their best match yesterday,” said Wright.

Despite the loss, Wright said there is not much of a concern among the school community, as they are confident they can get the job done at home on Saturday

“Probably because we have the return leg coming, I don’t hear the big concern as many people would have expected. We would love to have won, but I don’t know if there is a big concern that we can’t pull it off when they come back. There is that confidence that we will pull it off as we are all looking to go beyond the round,” said Wright.

Apart from his commitment as the coach and a teacher at Rusea’s, Vassell Reynolds recently took over as head coach of Red Stripe Premier League outfit Montego Bay United. However, Wright does not believe this has interfered with his work at the Lucea-based institution.  

“No, not at all. He is here, he does what he is supposed to do in the time he is supposed to, so I don’t have any issue with that. What he is doing is something that he would have discussed fully with me. If I had concerns, I would say it to him, but he pretty much has my approval,” said Wright.

DaCosta Cup action resumes this afternoon with a double-header at the Juici Beef Complex in May Pen, Clarendon.

Glenmiur who drew 1-1 on Wednesday will be entertaining St Mary Technical in the first game, which starts at 1 p.m. before Clarendon College look to pick up where they left off from their 5-0 thrashing of Green Island in the first leg, when those two meet at 3 p.m.