St Jago's Akeem Campbell

With the 2009 ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup at the halfway stage teams are beginning to eye spots in the second round.

There have already been more than a few surprises in the competition. Before the season started, St Jago High, Spanish Town High and debutants St Andrew College would not have featured prominently in any football discussion. However, the schools are making strong cases for themselves in this season's competition with some impressive displays.

Leading into yesterday's matches, St Jago occupied the second spot in Group B with 16 points, which leaves them comfortably in front of more-fancied teams such as Kingston College, who they actually defeated on their own field earlier in the season. Additionally, the St Catherine-based school has shown all-round strength with 22 goals so far to their credit while conceding five.

Coach Jermaine Thomas is satisfied with his team's position and credits the success to their preseason preparation.

"We did a lot of work in the preseason and I think that is paying off. In addition, 90 per cent of the players have been together for a long while; since first form, actually. I would say that the school is now looking at football in a new way, we are more focused now," Thomas said.

Thomas is hoping that his young charges, led by Machel Baker, Jelani Bogle, Rushane Stennett and Akeem Campbell, will provide enough firepower to see them through to the second round.

Spanish Town High, who compete in Group C, have also had a surprisingly strong season so far, especially when their recent one-year suspension from the competition is taken into account. The institution suffered the setback in 2006 on the brink of the semi-finals for allegedly using ineligible players and has had to significantly rebuild their squad, but with players such as Okana Thompson, Kenroy Powell and Andre Peart carrying the bulk of the responsibilities for the team, a second-round berth is a possibility. The team currently enjoys third spot in their group, on 10 points.

Coach Anthony Thompson is, however, slightly disappointed with his team's returns so far and is of the view that they should be enjoying a better position at this stage.

expected to do better

Said Thompson, "I actually expected us to do better than we have so far. We gave away two games and that really set us back, now we have to be hoping that others (teams) lose so that we can go through (to the next round)."

He went on to speak about the difficulties of having to rebuild his squad after the suspension, and is looking for the process to bear fruits within the next two seasons.

"It has been difficult, we had a team that was built over time and after the situation we lost a lot of players. Now we are looking to go as far as we can and if not this year, then certainly next year we will better," Thompson said.

For first-time entrants St Andrew College, playing in the Manning Cup has not been the horrid experience that many predicted it would be for them, and they are still in contention for a berth in the next stage, with 10 points and tied for third in Group E and within touching distance of a second-round spot. The group is headed by Bridgeport with 19 points with Tivoli second, on 13.