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JC hope to break 33-year drought
BY KAYON RAYNOR Observer senior staff reporter
raynork@jamaicaobserver.com
THE 90th winner of the prestigious ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup football competition will be decided today when 19-time champions Jamaica College (JC) square off against two-time winners and title holders Bridgeport at the National Stadium starting at 3:00 pm.
Kingston College (KC) and Waterford will contest the third place play-off in the 1:00 pm curtain raiser.
Since its inception 98 years ago in 1909 when JC secured the first title, the competition has not been held on eight occasions — 1911, 1944, 1954, 1960, 1966, 1972, 1973 and 1997 — for varying reasons.
With J$175,000 on the line, both teams will be going at full throttle to capture the symbol of Corporate Area schoolboy football supremacy.
JC should start favourites, having thrashed Bridgeport 4-0 on November 17 at the Spanish Town Prison Oval, to take Group A honours in the inter-zone round and move into the semi-fina ls, where they blanked Kingston College 2-0 in regulation time.
Added to that, is the fact that JC, more popularly known as the ‘Dark Blues’ have only lost one game for the entire seaso, going down 0-3 to Calabar in the Walker Cup finl. Tha t loss aside, JC are unbeaten in the Manning up.
They have scored a whopping 58 goals, giving up five on their way to winning 10 of their 14 uting s. Comparatively, Bridgeport have scored 4 t imes and conceded 12 goals on their way to a record of 11 wins, two losses and a draw from 14 matc hes, including their extra-time 1-0 semi-final victry over Waterford in the semi-final.
Despite beating Bridgeport 13 days ago, JC’s coach Alfred Henry told Sporting World that h is charges will not be taking the defending champions lightly.
“That game is past and gone, come Sturday (today) is a new game, so I don’t even want o think about that part of it, because that might bring o n some different psychological things,” Henry told Sporting World. “We just want to forget about that, think about playing an entirely new game by dominating our opponents and hope that it (the result) comes out the way we want it to,” he added.
Many naysayers are predicting that JC will stumble at today’s final hurdle as they did in the Walker Cup final against Calabar.
Quizzed if that will have any effect on his unit, Henry replied: “No, not at all... I don’t pay none of that any attention at all, it doesn’t affect me one
bit, it’s just another game,” he reasoned. JC’s last lien on the title came in 1974 when they defeated KC 1-0.
However, they slumped to a extra-time 2-3 defeat to Tivoli Gardens in their last trip to the final in 1999.
Bridgeport’s coach Anthony Patrick told Sporting World that his charges will be pulling out all the stops to turn the tables on JC.
“It is going to be a different ball game this time around because this is a final and we are the defending champions with a hand on the title already,” Patrick said. “We just have to try and go out there be positive, try and put away our chances and once we do that we can retain the title,” he added.
Bridgeport, who tagged Excelsior 3-1 to lift the 2006 trophy, will be contesting their fourth final. They defeated Spanish Town High 2-1 to secure their first title in 2001, before losing the 2003 edition to Excelsior 0-1.
Ramone Palmer of Jamaica College is expected to lead the way for the Old Hope Road-based school.
HENRY … we just want to forget about that, think about playing an entirely new game
Andre Steele is one of the shining stars for Bridgeport.
PATRICK … it is going to be a different ball game this time around because this is a final and we are the defending champions
BY KAYON RAYNOR Observer senior staff reporter
raynork@jamaicaobserver.com
THE 90th winner of the prestigious ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup football competition will be decided today when 19-time champions Jamaica College (JC) square off against two-time winners and title holders Bridgeport at the National Stadium starting at 3:00 pm.
Kingston College (KC) and Waterford will contest the third place play-off in the 1:00 pm curtain raiser.
Since its inception 98 years ago in 1909 when JC secured the first title, the competition has not been held on eight occasions — 1911, 1944, 1954, 1960, 1966, 1972, 1973 and 1997 — for varying reasons.
With J$175,000 on the line, both teams will be going at full throttle to capture the symbol of Corporate Area schoolboy football supremacy.
JC should start favourites, having thrashed Bridgeport 4-0 on November 17 at the Spanish Town Prison Oval, to take Group A honours in the inter-zone round and move into the semi-fina ls, where they blanked Kingston College 2-0 in regulation time.
Added to that, is the fact that JC, more popularly known as the ‘Dark Blues’ have only lost one game for the entire seaso, going down 0-3 to Calabar in the Walker Cup finl. Tha t loss aside, JC are unbeaten in the Manning up.
They have scored a whopping 58 goals, giving up five on their way to winning 10 of their 14 uting s. Comparatively, Bridgeport have scored 4 t imes and conceded 12 goals on their way to a record of 11 wins, two losses and a draw from 14 matc hes, including their extra-time 1-0 semi-final victry over Waterford in the semi-final.
Despite beating Bridgeport 13 days ago, JC’s coach Alfred Henry told Sporting World that h is charges will not be taking the defending champions lightly.
“That game is past and gone, come Sturday (today) is a new game, so I don’t even want o think about that part of it, because that might bring o n some different psychological things,” Henry told Sporting World. “We just want to forget about that, think about playing an entirely new game by dominating our opponents and hope that it (the result) comes out the way we want it to,” he added.
Many naysayers are predicting that JC will stumble at today’s final hurdle as they did in the Walker Cup final against Calabar.
Quizzed if that will have any effect on his unit, Henry replied: “No, not at all... I don’t pay none of that any attention at all, it doesn’t affect me one
bit, it’s just another game,” he reasoned. JC’s last lien on the title came in 1974 when they defeated KC 1-0.
However, they slumped to a extra-time 2-3 defeat to Tivoli Gardens in their last trip to the final in 1999.
Bridgeport’s coach Anthony Patrick told Sporting World that his charges will be pulling out all the stops to turn the tables on JC.
“It is going to be a different ball game this time around because this is a final and we are the defending champions with a hand on the title already,” Patrick said. “We just have to try and go out there be positive, try and put away our chances and once we do that we can retain the title,” he added.
Bridgeport, who tagged Excelsior 3-1 to lift the 2006 trophy, will be contesting their fourth final. They defeated Spanish Town High 2-1 to secure their first title in 2001, before losing the 2003 edition to Excelsior 0-1.
Ramone Palmer of Jamaica College is expected to lead the way for the Old Hope Road-based school.
HENRY … we just want to forget about that, think about playing an entirely new game
Andre Steele is one of the shining stars for Bridgeport.
PATRICK … it is going to be a different ball game this time around because this is a final and we are the defending champions
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