Calabar’s 3-0 win not clinical enough for Price

CALABAR COACH Andrew Price was far from impressed with his team despite scoring a 3-0 win over Haile Selassie High in Group D ISSA/WATA Manning Cup action at Calabar yesterday.

Jaheim Rankine’s 10th-minute strike put the home team ahead, and Kevaun Campbell stabbed home the second after 34 minutes to make it 2-0 at the interval. Sheldon Pusey then sealed the win from the spot with a 65th penalty.

Although pleased with the three points and the clean sheet, Price said the performance could have been better, particularly in their finishing.

“It’s definitely good to get off to a good start. To get three points and a clean sheet. They did well. But I wasn’t too impressed with the performance. We were not as aggressive as we could have been. We should have won by a larger margin, so we need to be more clinical in front of goal,” he said.

“But it’s the first game, early days, so we have to take it one day at a time. We have to do some work. We have to be way more clinical,” he added.

Calabar started the better of the teams despite a valiant effort from their opponents, and they eventually went ahead when Rankine broke the deadlock early on.

They continued to create the better openings and eventually added a second through Campbell, who turned in Franchesco Reid’s cross from six yards.

Although Calabar were in control of the second half, Haile Selassie were always dangerous, with the hard-to-contain Anthony McDonald at the heart of most good things the visiting team did in attack.

Calabar sealed the win midway the second half when they were awarded a penalty, and Pusey slotted home the spot kick to make it 3-0.

“We got numerous chances today, and we didn’t put them away. We will have to score against better teams when we face them. So we have to work on our finishing and see if we can be more clinical in front of goal,” Price emphasised.

Haile Selassie coach, Linval Dixon, said poor defending let them down on the day, but he is confident they will rebound.

“We made some errors that cost us the goals. Of course, we have some work to be done at the back of the field and in midfield. But we must learn from this. It is our first game of the season. We will improve because this a Haile Selassie team that never gives up. So we will bounce back as we move forward.”

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com

Yesterday’s Results

• Vauxhall 0-0 STATHS

• Calabar 3-0 Haile Selassie

• Kingston Tech 1-2 Camperdown