Manley, Penwood clash

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

The Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) will be hoping that the rains will stay away today to enable the 12 games that they have scheduled in its Pepsi/Digicel-sponsored urban area Manning Cup senior schoolboy football competition will go ahead as planned.

The fixtures, which includes both original and rescheduled matches, will see group D's Norman Manley hosting Penwood at Maxfield Park in the feature game, with the former hoping to stop the latter's seven-match unbeaten run.

Penwood lead the group with maximum 21 points, three ahead of St Andrew Technical, with Norman Manley on 16 points, rounding off the top three.

It will be the first time that Norman Manley and Penwood will be meeting this season, after their first scheduled contest was rained out.

The game will also see Norman Manley trying to recover from their first defeat - a 2-1 loss to St Andrew Technical on Saturday.

"We cannot afford to lose any more for the rest of this round," said Norman Manley manager Karl Stephens, following the defeat.

"We have two matches against Penwood, plus another three games and we need most, if not all, the points to secure our passage to the next round. Penwood is the team to beat, but I believe we have what it takes to beat them in the two matches," he declared.

In other matches in the group, Meadowbrook will host fellow strugglers Pembroke Hall and cellar-dwellers Holy Trinity will play away to Mona.

Today's Games

Group A: Oberlin vs Jamaica College, St Mary's College vs Cumberland, Waterford vs Camperdown

Group B: Bridgeport vs Ascot, Vauxhall vs Tivoli

Group D: Meadowbrook vs Pembroke Hall, Mona vs Holy Trinity, Norman Manley vs Penwood

Group F: Jonathan Grant vs Kingston College, St Catherine vs Hydel, Tarrant vs Campion

Home teams are named first and all games are scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.