AS THE victorious Vere Technical High School football team and their coach Rayon Johnson exited the Glenmuir High School venue, the Cornwall die-hard supporters who travelled all the way from Montego Bay warned them that they will be returning to the lion’s den in the return leg of their ISSA/daCosta Cup second-round knockout clash.
On Saturday, Vere inched their way closer to the Round-of-16 following a 2-1 first-leg win. However, Johnson knows all too well that the tie is far from over as Cornwall will be a different proposition out West.
“I really appreciate the win even though I think we could have done better, but I know it’s going to be tough because Cornwall at home is tough. We just have to go and do what we have to do and prepare for this Cornwall team,” said Johnson.
Cornwall’s coach Dr Dean Weatherly believes his charges should have been the ones heading back to Montego Bay with the win after his team spurned a number of chances late in the first half and midway through the second.
Despite the defeat, Weatherly believes his troops will rally come next Wednesday and put up a better showing on home turf.
“We really should have won this game outright and it was a simple defensive error that really cost us, but it is one of those things that you have to deal with and we will dig deep come next week.”
The simple error Weatherly spoke of was a mix-up between goalkeeper Carlyle Tinglin and Mikhail Samuels which allowed Vere’s Malcolm Lennon to get the winner in time added on for stoppages.
Samuels attempted a back pass with his head to Tinglin who fumbled the ball and Lennon pounced to stab home from close range in the second minute of added time.
That winning goal was redemption for the Vere team, who played the majority of the second half with 10 men after Rusheim Ryan was sent off for stomping on a Cornwall player in the 54th minute.
But Cornwall had been doing things the hard way from the get-go, having to come from behind in a hard-fought contest.
Deshaun Talbert was the first to react to another mishandled ball, this time from Vere’s custodian Alex McLaughlin in the 27th minute to restore parity after Akeem Shuriah reacted best to a right-sided free kick from Lennon in the 12th.