Champions again!

A BRACE from defender O’Neil Headly paved the way for Glenmuir High as they made schoolboy football history, toppling Jamaica College (JC) 3-1 to become the first team to successfully defend an ISSA Champions Cup title yesterday at the National Stadium.

Glenmuir claimed their second consecutive hold on the prestigious knockout competition trophy in fine form as they handed JC their first loss of the season.

The defending champions fired the opening salvo early in the contest, Headly’s 14th-minute cross-cum-shot from a free kick swung past the towering heads in the box to nestle into the back of the net.

JC returned fire, however, as first-half substitute Amarlie King pounced on a poor clearance from Glenmuir’s defence to score from close range and pull his team level.

Glenmuir, however, would retake the lead in the second half when Headly fired home a rocket which split the JC wall, splitting goalkeeper Adriano Kitson beaten for pace.

Glenmuir’s talisman this season, Orane Watson, would get a prime opportunity to add his team’s third of the night as he broke through between two defenders but his effort drifted agonisingly wide in the 55th minute.

JC thought they had pulled level just past the hour mark, when a close-range header proved problematic for Glenmuir’s custodian, who slipped at the crucial moment, but recovered enough to keep the ball from crossing the line.

With minutes left on the clock, second-half substitute Nyron Allen would seal the win, adding another late Champions Cup goal to his repertoire this season.

After the match, Glenmuir’s head coach Andrew Peart was filled with praise for his team who, he said, showed quality across all areas of the field.

“It’s a special feeling for us,” he said.

“O’Neil Headly, it’s like he found his form in terms of kicking the set pieces, especially the direct free kicks. I’m very happy for him because he had a tough latter stage of the preseason and a tough start where he was injured, but he came on really massive for us.”

Peart said the aim for Glenmuir is their daCosta Cup semifinal fixture against Garvey Maceo on Wednesday at the St Elizabeth Technical High School field.

On the other side of the result, JC will look to refocus for their Manning Cup semifinal against St Catherine on Tuesday at the National Stadium.

With two goals let in from set pieces, JC coach, Davion Ferguson, was not pleased.

“Congratulations to Glenmuir, but congratulations to ISSA,” he said, seemingly in a tongue-in-cheek jab at the competition’s organising body for giving his goalkeeper a three-match suspension.

JC’s goalkeeper, Taywane Lynch, was given a red card in the Champions Cup quarterfinal but could have been available for the final.

However, after a disciplinary review, the goalkeeper was suspended for an additional two games, in real terms, ending his season.

“The goalkeeper tried his best,” said Ferguson, indicating that Lynch’s replacement, Kitson, may not have been up to the task of keeping out the set pieces, the first one seemingly the one for which he may have been culpable.