By Audley Boyd, Staff Reporter 
Under the watchful eyes of his captain, Dwight Lewis (right), Norman Manley's Kearn Binns (crouching) goes after possession ahead of Spanish Town's captain, Ravi Bonnick, in their Walker Cup semi-final game at Prison Oval yesterday. Norman Manley won 1-0. - Ian Allen
BRIDGEPORT Comprehensive stayed on course to cop a schoolboy football double with a 1-0 victory over Wolmer's in their Walker Cup Knockout semi-final at Prison Oval yesterday.
Their opponents in Saturday's final will be the team they replaced as Manning Cup champions, Norman Manley Comprehensive, which showed great character and determination after being reduced to 10 players at the 25th minute to oust Spanish Town High by the same 1-0 margin in sudden-death.
That game was the opening contest of a doubleheader at the Spanish Town venue and the scorer was Courtney Williams, a second-half substitute.
The dangerous Kemar Peterkin scored in the 40th minute for Bridgeport who rode their luck well to still be in with a shot of adding to Saturday's 2-1 Manning Cup final win over Spanish Town, which made them the first team from St. Catherine to lift that title.
"I wasn't all that pleased but nevertheless we come out with a 1-0 victory," said Anthony Patrick, coach of Bridgeport who conceded by far most of the scoring chances.
Commenting on the opportunity they have to add the KO crown to their league triumph, Patrick said: "That was our aim from the outset, the 17th and the 24th. The 17th is gone behind us now and we've another shot at another Cup on the 24th. We'll see what we can do from there."
They may have to improve their play significantly if they are to become the first St. Catherine school to win the double in the major football competitions contested by high schools in the Corporate Area and Spanish Town.
Both teams were missing top players as Bridgeport's midfielders Omar Campbell and Oneil Thompson were serving suspensions due to an accumulation of yellow cards; and Wolmer's top striker, Akiem Priestly, was left out of their squad.
The absence of the players were clearly reflected as Bridgeport's midfielders offered very little in an area completely dominated by their opponents.
Wolmer's dominance was such that they created chance after chance, especially towards the last quarter of the game when they piled on the pressure. However, they just could not put the ball in the net.
"We had the better of play, probably 60 to 70 per cent of the ball and we created numerous chances. Once again finishing the chance has been our problem because we created a lot more chances than Bridgeport. Bridgeport created one really good chance and they scored that chance," said Wolmer's coach Winston McCallum.
Norman Manley may have been a player short but the red card given to George McCatty at the 25th minute never affected their effectiveness as they played much better than the home team and created many scoring chances.
The Maxfield Avenue-based school, which had only three subs on the bench, reshuffled their team after the sending off by placing two midfielders in defence, a defender to midfield and pushing another midfielder forward.
They ran well off the ball, played with a lot more energy and also netted what seemed a legitimate goal in the closing seconds, only to see it disallowed by referee Patrick Nam as a foul, when it was really inept goalkeeping.
Little Kevin Mills took a header that was parried by Spanish Town's custodian Dermaine Foster. Mills carefully went around the goalie and appeared to have gotten a clean header on the rebound which fell into the goal.
"We're getting some poor decisions and that was one of them. I think it was a legitimate goal but that's the way it goes some times. The referee doesn't see it, he's watching 22 players, I won't kill him for that. We've won the game and the bitter turned sweet," said Alrick Clarke, Norman Manley's coach.
