St Catherine coach wants to get his team over mental hump

THE FIRST leg of the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup round of 16 matches takes centre stage this afternoon with a full slate of games.

In a doubleheader at St Catherine High School, the home team entertain high-flying Wolmer’s Boys’ School in the feature game at 3 p.m.

In the opening match, Eltham face defending champions Jamaica College at 1 p.m.

Wolmer’s head into the contest as slight favourites but coach Jerome Waite said they know very little about the opponents, which means they will have to be cautious, initially.

However, he admits that even if they don’t get the win today, they have another game to get it right.

“Both teams have done something good to reach here. It will not be a walkover. I have not seen this St Catherine team but the good thing is we will play them twice.

“The game will be at St Catherine High School which is their backyard. We will go there and do what we have to do but we still have another 90 minutes after the first leg.

“So we will take it in stride. We will see what they have and try to pull off the advantage from the first leg,” he said.

Wolmer’s won eight of their 10 matches, scoring 44 goals and conceding nine.

Waite will look to players like Jayden Walters, Nathaniel Brooks, Addon Daye and Dante Dacres to lead the team to victory.

St Catherine coach Anthony Patrick believes he has the better of the two teams. However, he believes that psychologically there is a mental block they need to overcome.

“All around I believe we have more quality. It is just for the players to show that when they take the pitch. When they meet the traditional big teams, they are prone to make a lot of mistakes and tend to ‘buck their toe’.

“That is the mentality I am trying to get them to move away from. But we are looking forward to this challenge. It is going to be a close one, but playing at home we want to get the better of them, which is important,” he said.

The St John’s Road school’s hopes will rest on leading scorer Dwight Gentles, Jaque Watson, Romain Walters, and Kadean Young.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com

Today’s games

• Kingston Tech vs STATHS at Jamaica College at 2:30 p.m.

• Campion College vs Kingston College at Jamaica College at 4:30 p.m.

• Tivoli vs Haile Selassie at Edward Seaga Complex at 3 p.m.

• Eltham vs Jamaica College at St Catherine High at 1 p.m.

• St Catherine vs Wolmer’s at St Catherine High at 3 p.m.

• Hydel vs Excelsior at Royal Lakes at 3 p.m.

• St Jago vs St George’s at Prison Oval at 2:30 p.m.

• Jonathan Grant vs Mona at Prison Oval at 4:30 p.m.