St Jago, Holy Trinity battle to stalemate

Holy Trinity High had to settle for an away point as they were held to a 0-0 draw by St Jago High in their Group A ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup encounter at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday.

Holy Trinity entered the contest joint top of the group on 11 points from six games with Cumberland High, while Jago lie in third place on 10 points from five games.

The teams were looking for maximum points, having two-game win streaks entering the contest, but the encounter turned out to be more of a drab with Holy Trinity marginally looking the better opposition in the searing mid-afternoon heat.

It was not before the 25th minute that there was any real meaningful chance, and it came via a right-sided free-kick from left-footer Ricardo Dixon, who hit the right post from 30 yards out.

The Devon Anderson coached Holy Trinity were woeful in the final third, squandering several purposeful attacks as the Jago defenders kept a close watch on talisman Noel Bunsie. With the first half, goalless, a bit more was expected in the second stanza, and Holy Trinity once again looked like the team to break the deadlock but faulty finishing kept the encounter scoreless.

Chances aplenty

The North Street-based institution could have secured all three points in the 65th minute, however, substitute Carlington Blackwood put the ball over the bar after goalkeeper Nicholas Frater mishandled a cross which fell to the feet of the striker.

Anderson lamented what he describes as two points lost.

“We were wasteful in front of goal today and it cost us two points,” he said. “We want to separate ourselves from the rest of the teams in the group so we have to win our remaining games, the teams below us have a number of games to play so it’s going to be a tough run if we want to make it to the second round.”

Jago coach Erron Brown says he was comfortable with the point.

“It was a good performance from my team today,” Brown said. “Hopefully, we can push forward and make it to the second round, we have some games in the back and we want to improve game by game and today we showed signs of improving and it is a positive step going forward.”