‘It was an absolute waste’

ST CATHERINE High School and Jamaica College (JC) fans were left disappointed and angered yesterday at the Spanish Town Prison Oval as the two teams played out a listless 1-1 draw in their final match of the ISSA Manning Cup second round yesterday.

The result meant Jamaica College followed St Catherine High into the quarter-finals, with the former only needing a point.

St Catherine finished atop Group Four with seven points ahead of JC, who take second with five.

Both sets of fans were left angered after a dull display that saw both teams content with holding possession without any attacking intent.

A JC fan, who spoke to The Sunday Gleaner under the condition of remaining unnamed, said the performance was disappointing for all involved, as he believed neither team played to the best of their abilities.

“This game was most unattractive to come and watch,” the fan said.

“Both teams were obviously playing for a draw, and that is not good for the competition. I think you should go out and give your best all the time, and that is not what happened here today.

“It was an absolute waste of my money to come and watch such a match when both teams have obviously determined that they want each other to go through. It is as simple as that and it’s sad to see.”

A St Catherine High fan who simply went by the name Denzel said he felt embarrassed by the performance as he stated both teams treated the game as a training session.

He believed both teams had decided to draw the match for their own benefit.

“They’re treating the football like a training session. It’s a sell-out match and everybody can see what’s going on,” he insisted.

“Catherine already gone through and we can see they don’t want the win to let JC go through too. Can’t believe this was what I paid to come watch”

However, both head coaches denied the allegations of purposely drawing the match to secure JC’s passage to the quarter-finals.

JC head coach Davion Ferguson said the performance was as a result of both teams being determined to see out a strong defensive game.

He said his team had started the game with a defensive mindset against a St Catherine team who have proven their quality this season.

“I wouldn’t say it was a sub-par attacking performance, since we had two goals in the game,” he said.

“It was credit to two good defensive structures and that was a plus. It was just how the game played out. It was two good offensive teams that came out defensively to be strong.

“We were a little cagey in the first half but, in the second half, we came a little bit to life. The most important thing was to qualify for the quarter-finals, which was what we did,” he added.

Anthony Patrick, head coach of St Catherine, said the idea was to dominate the possession as they sought to limit the opportunities afforded to JC.

“The players were confident and we spoke about it at length. We wanted to possess the ball as long as possible and, once we don’t give the opponent much possession of the football, then it would be a good game. The 1-1 was good enough for us and we stayed on top of the group.”

Calabar’s 3-0 win over Charlie Smith High proved not enough to carry them to the quarter-final as they finish third and fourth in the group, respectively and will contest the first round of the ISSA Walker Cup.

Also in action yesterday, Tivoli Gardens High secured their spot in the quarter-finals as they held Eltham High to a 2-2 draw. Both teams finished with four points but Tivoli had a better goal difference.

The full contingent of quarter-finalists include Mona High, Campion College, Excelsior High, Tivoli Gardens, Kingston College (KC), Hydel High, St Catherine High and JC.

Yesterday’s results

St Catherine 1-1 Jamaica College

Charlie Smith 0-3 Calabar

Eltham 2-2 Tivoli

Excelsior 5-1 Jonathan Grant