Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
St. George's College's Andre Lynahping, who made some mesmerizing plays, leaves a defender on his bottom during yesterday's match against Kingston High at Winchester Park. - IAN ALLEN/Staff Photographer
MANY-TIME champions St. George's College (StGC) registered their first win of the season, swamping Kingston High 8-0 in their Group D ISSA/Pepsi/JN Manning Cup game at Winchester Park yesterday.
In one of only two scheduled Manning Cup games that survived the rain St. George's, courtesy of three goals from Kemal Malcolm (17th, 47th and 68th) and a double strike by Wilfred Mitchell (70th and 72nd), the Light Blues propelled themselves to fourth place in the group.
Three of the scheduled matches were postponed due to the inclement weather. In Group B, the Dunoon/Tarrant and Ardenne/Charlie Smith encounters were severely affected by the wet conditions and the referees called off the games.
In the Group D game between Tivoli Gardens and Waterford at the Edward Seaga Stadium, the referees initially wanted to start the game but were told by the groundsmen that their decision would only destroy the field.
St. George's, with two defeats, two draws and a win, trail leaders Tivoli Gardens and Waterford on seven points, but both teams have a game in hand, with Edith Dalton James lying third on six points.
Kingston High, at the end of the first set of games, are still pointless and have conceded 27 goals in four matches while scoring only four.
Coach Neville "Bertis" Bell, though happy for the win, pointed out that Kingston High offered little in resistance.
"To be fair it wasn't the most difficult game for us. I am happy that we scored eight times and got the win eventually."
Bell, a former StGC player who represented Jamaica at the youth (Juvenile) level, added: "It probably wasn't our best game because we have been getting chances and not scoring. Today we still got chances and we scored a lot of goals and I am impressed with that. But it wasn't the toughest game," he reiterated.
Steven Bailey, coach of Kingston High, was a distraught man and though not wanting to take anything away from his opponents, said he only knew of the rescheduled game on Monday night while watching the sports news.
"I don't want to make no excuses for our loss but the game was brought forward and we never knew about it until I heard it on the sports news last night (Monday night)," said Bailey.
"When the guys came to school today they had to go back home for their gears and that was a major setback," he added.
On a wet and soggy outfield, StGC took control early and were never troubled for the entire 90 minutes of play.
Had strikers Jermaine Gardner and Kemal Malcolm been more accurate in front of goal, the scoreline could easily have been doubled.
So effortless was St. George's victory that it look like a training session with the attacking players dribbling past the strategically placed cones and firing at an empty net.
The only blemish, if it can so be called, was that they did it accurately only eight times.
