STGC need to take their chances - Gayle pleased with opening Manning Cup win, but warns team after poor finishing

Assistant coach of St George’s College, Marcel Gayle, said his team still has a lot of work do in front of goal, this after his side squandered a number of chances in their 2-0 win over Eltham in their opening match of the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition at Winchester Park yesterday.

Captain Nathaniel Campbell in the third minute and Chantomoi Taylor in the 67th minute were the scorers for the Neville ‘Bertis’ Bell-coached St George’s.

Another of the favourites, Holy Trinity will bow into action today when they tackle Clan Carthy in the lone Group A encounter at Winchester Park.

The Devon Anderson-coached Holy Trinity, who won the Walker Cup title last year season, were a quarter-finalist in the Manning Cup a year ago.

Meanwhile, St George’s College, who were beaten by North Street rivals Kingston College in last year’s final, outclassed their opponents in every department. However, they were let-down by poor finishing from their attackers, who were guilty of missing a number of clear-cut chances in front of goal.

Gayle said they are happy for the victory but still have a lot of work to do in front of goal moving forward.

“It is early season and it is good that we can see some things that we need to work on and so we just have to go to the drawing board and come again,” said Gayle.

“It is good start and kudos to the team because I thought we played well,” Gayle added. “But I think Eltham did what they had to do to keep us off the score sheet from scoring more goals."

Meanwhile, Demar Howard, assistant coach of Eltham, was somewhat pleased with his team’s performance despite the result.

"We knew that St George’s are a very technical team and so going out against them, we knew that it was going to be very difficult,” said Howard. “We tried to sit behind the ball, but they managed to get an early goal, which set us back, but all-in-all, I think we played well despite the defeat."

Yesterday’s results

Group A

Bridgeport 1 Cumberland 1

St Jago High 2 Haile Selassie 1

Group B

Charlie Smith 5 Donald Quarrie 0

Group C

St Catherine High 9 Penwood 0

STATHS 5 Oberlin 0

Group F

St George’s College 2 Eltham 0

Calabar vs Norman Manley (Match rained out)

Campion College 0 Ardenne 1

Group G

Cedar Grove vs Pembroke Hall (Match rained Out)

Today’s matches.

Group A

Holy Trinity vs Clan Carthy

Group D

St Mary’s College vs Meadowbrook

Camperdown vs Mona High

Edith Dalton vs Hydel

Group E

Jose Marti vs Tarrant High

Vauxhall vs Innswood

Greater Portmore vs Jamaica College