William Knibb win 3-0, seek improvements

WESTERN BUREAU:

WILLIAM KNIBB Memorial High School opened their winning account in the Inter-Secondary Schools’ Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel daCosta Cup football competition with a 3-0 win at home against Spot Valley High School yesterday.

William Knibb took an early lead through Jayar Skyers, who netted from a close-range header. The hosts created a number of chances for the remainder of the first half, and even missed a penalty, to go into the interval with a slender 1-0 lead.

William Knibb’s prolific goalscorer from last season, Mark Lewis, would get on the scorecard three minutes into the second half, to double their lead.

The game was not without a bit of drama as a player from each team was shown the red card. Spot Valley’s Khalid Stephenson was ejected for violent conduct and Theonjay Bennett of William Knibb, for retaliation, in the 58th minute.

Afterwards, defender Tajay Cooper rose for a brilliant header to put the icing on the cake for William Knibb in the 85th minute.

Despite a relatively comfortable win, Dwight Jeremiah, coach of William Knibb, said their performance could have been better. He outlined that they have to be more clinical and ruthless in the first round.

LACKING IN SOME AREAS

“It was probably a seven out of 10 performance because I think we were lacking in the defensive transitional phase of the game. We need to work on it although we don’t have a lot of time. We came away with a clean sheet, but it was mainly down to individual defending and not as a collective,” Jeremiah said.

Continuing, he said: “We know coming out of the zone has to happen for us to achieve our objective. However, we have to do even better than we did last year. We have to get wins, and goals as well, and today I think, even though we won three-nil, it could have been five or six.

“The goals will matter if it comes to the seeding and the points are the same,” he added.

Spot Valley’s head coach, Waldy Williams, is banking on doing well at home to get things right in the first round.

“We are hoping that, at our first home game on Wednesday, we can have a better game. Sometimes a team plays better at home,” Williams said.

“We have to try and get things right as quickly as possible. The games are coming very fast, so we don’t have a lot of time to work. We have Muschett next and have to start getting some points from these games,” he stated.

Yesterday’s Results

Central 4 Tacius Golding 1

Glenmuir 3 Denbigh 1

Port Antonio 5 Fair Prospect 0

Anchovy 0 St. James 2

Cornwall College 1 Green Pond 2

Hopewell 0 Rusea’s 7

Frome 9 Merlene Ottey 0

Muschett 3 Herbert Morrison 4

Mannings 3 Godfrey Stewart 1

Belmont Academy 1 Grange Hill 0

Munro College 1 Lacovia 0

STETHS 2 Maggotty 0

Alphansus Davis High 1 Holmwood 1

Lennon 1 Edwin Allen 4

Clarendon College 7 Kellits High 0

Oracabessa 2 Ocho Rios 3

Browns Town 0 York Castle 0

Charlemont 2 McGrath 0

Dinthill 10 Enid Bennett 0

Guys Hill 2 Ewarton 0