Wolmer's hand George's first defeat

Wolmer's Boys handed defending champions St George's College their first defeat this season in the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup urban area senior schoolboy football competition, with a hard-fought, come-from-behind 2-1 win in their Group E encounter at Heroes Circle yesterday.

Vance Rookwood (40th) and Desmond Campbell (49th) scored both goals for the Ludlow Bernard-coached Wolmer's.

Romario Jones scored for St George's College in the 18th minute.

Victory lifted Wolmer's to second place in the group on 17 points, one behind St George's, who have a game in hand.

Despite the win, Bernard was displeased with their performance.

"The only thing that we did today was to get three points ... I was very dissatisfied with the quality of our game," said Bernard.

"I think we need to get back to the basics and see if we can regroup ourselves again and get back our team game, because this was clearly not a classy performance compared to the first game at St George's."

Bernard added: "I am happy though that the spirit is there to win the game, because three points in this zone is highly welcome, and I really appreciate what the players did today. I am hoping that with a little more time we can continue on this form."

Neville 'Bertis' Bell, coach of the St George's, was gracious in defeat.

"It was another great game today and congrats to Wolmer's for getting the three points," said Bell. "I was a bit concerned that we didn't get a lot of goalscoring opportunities until the last 15 minutes, when I thought we should have scored at least three goals."

Bell added: "I don't think we deserved three points today, but we fought hard. We didn't play as well as George's know how to play, but we will take our licks and we will go again."

St George's began the match confidently and were given the lead when Jones headed a right-sided corner kick taken by his captain, Devon Williams, past goalkeeper Amal Knight.

The speedy Rookwood pulled his team level 22 minutes later, when he collected a past inside the 18-yard box from Omar Holness, then unleashed a powerful right-footed shot past goalkeeper Neco Campbell.

Campbell doubled Wolmer's lead four minutes into the second half with a spectacular volley from point-blank range, which went like a rocket past Campbell.

- Robert Bailey

Yesterday's Results

Group B: Bridgeport 0 Ascot 0, Tivoli Gardens 2 Vauxhall 1

Group A: Jamaica College 8 Oberlin 0, Waterford 1 Camperdown 0, Cumberland 2 St Mary's College 2

Group C: Innswood 1 Charlie Smith 0, Calabar 6 St Andrew College 1

Group E: Wolmer's 2 St George's College 1, St Jago 4 Ardenne 2

Group F: Jonathan Grant 0 Kingston College 0

Today's Games

Group B: Dunoon Technical vs Tivoli Gardens, Ascot vs Jose Marti

Group D: St Andrew Technical vs Mona, Pembroke Hall vs Norman Manley, Holy Trinity vs Penwood

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