Now that Camperdown High School have booked a spot in the second round of the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup football competition, they will be focusing more on being more clinical in front of goal, assistant coach Shavon Byfield said.
The eastern Kingston-based school has been whizzing through Group C, but they have not been able to score more than two goals in a game so far. Byfield believes that this is an issue that needs to be resolved if they are to advance beyond the second round.
"We have qualified already, but the three remaining games in the group are really important because we will be using them to practise scoring more goals," Byfield said. "Last year, goals seemed to be a really important factor in the second round, and we don't want to be in a situation where a limited number of goals caused us to be eliminated."
Byfield's charges will try to correct their goal-scoring woes when they take on Meadowbrook High School today at 3 p.m. at the Meadowbrook Community Centre.
"We are taking the match against Meadowbrook very seriously, and we are hoping to practise some of the things that we talk about as well," Byfield said.
Meadowbrook, sitting in last position in the group, are merely playing for pride as they have already been eliminated from the competition, after losing all but one of the seven games they have played.
Camperdown, on 19 points, having only dropped two points in the seven games they have played, are also looking to wrap up the group's first-place position.
"The number-one spot is very important to us and we are playing to secure it, but we will also be using these three games to give our bench more playing time because we want them to be ready when the second round begins," said Byfield.
• Jonathan Grant v Charlie Smith
• Meadowbrook v Camperdown
• Eltham v Norman Manley
• Wolmer's v Edith Dalton
• Jose Marti v Waterford
• Pembroke Hall v Holy Trinity