Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer
HOSTS KINGSTON Technical and St. Catherine played to an exciting 0-0 draw in their ISSA/Pepsi/ JN Manning Cup match at Clan Carthy field yesterday.
St. Catherine came firing in the first half, but were denied by excellent goalkeeping from Jovell Plunkett and a well-organised Kingston Technical defensive unit.
In the second half, Kingston Technical looked the more threatening of the teams but failed to capitalise on their goalscoring chances due to poor finishing from the likes of Allando Kirlew, Sheldon Ryan and Jack Allen.
St. Catherine's Chrissando Christie thought he had given his team the lead in the final stanza but his shot went into the side netting while teammate Andrew Lennon's close-range effort went right into the arms of Plunkett.
Coach pleased
Dwight Barnett, coach of St. Catherine, was pleased with his team's performance.
"Well, it was a competitive game," Barnett said. "We started out playing good football but we lost our focus in the later part of the first half.
"We talked about it at the halftime break and we started out pretty well in the second period and got a number of chances, but we just failed to convert them," he said.
Assistant coach of Kingston Technical, Michael Thompson, said he was also satisfied with his team's effort.
"It was a hard-fought game today," Thompson said. "But I think that my team played well, seeing that we were missing a number of our starting players due to disciplinary reasons," he said.