Haile Selassie finish off St Catherine

The tough 24 minutes that the Haile Selassie coaching staff predicted yesterday came to pass, but they ensured that they finished the job they started on Thursday afternoon to end the ISSA/Digicel Walker Cup reign of St Catherine High.

Thanks to Haile Selassie’s Jahwan Payne who completed a hat trick in the 88th minute, Haile Selassie eliminated St Catherine 4-1, concluding the encounter that started on Thursday evening. The match was delayed by an hour because of flooded sections of the field resulting from heavy afternoon showers and was suspended because of bad light after 66 minutes with Joshua Dewar and Payne giving Haile Selassie a 2-0 lead.

The resumption of play saw a quick-fire effort from Ellis Guscott in the 69th minute to give the two-time champions some hope but Haile Selassie endured the pressure and got the two late goals four minutes a part, both by Payne, to send them to their first Walker Cup semifinal since 2016.

Head coach Linval Dixon said that he couldn’t be more proud of how the players maintained their cool and battled through the challenge that they knew would come with St Catherine desperate for goals.

“I really feel good about the achievement of the players today. It was a hard 24 minutes after St Catherine scored early in the game. A little nervousness kind of crept in but we kept our composure and we scored two goals,” Dixon said.

What was important for Dixon is that they did not go to defend a 2-0 goal but to keep the same attacking mentality that saw them in the ascendency when play was stopped on Thursday.

“We knew that they would have come with all guns blazing. But we wanted to keep our shape and press them too. Because what we didn’t want to do is go into a defensive mood. We still had to attack and make them know that we had dangerous persons on our team that can capitalise on chances,” Dixon said.

The missed chances that St Catherine had in the first half on Thursday eventually came back to haunt them in the view of head coach Anthony Patrick.

“It is about what we do. We made a lot of mistakes in front of goal. We missed a lot of chances and it came back to haunt us. It gave Haile Selassie the ascendency to lead the game,” Patrick said.

What awaits Haile Selassie now is a rematch with Wolmer’s Boys in the semifinals, a team they lost to (3-2) in their final ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup quarterfinal game. St George’s College will face Tivoli in the other semifinal with both games to be played on November 29.

Walker Cup semifinal matches

Haile Selassie vs Wolmer’s

Tivoli Gardens vs St George’s College