Manning Cup chaos

• Police fire shots to maintain crowd control at Wolmer's gate

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Gunshots rang out at Wolmer's Boys' School yesterday prior to the start of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Gatorade/Digicel Manning Cup schoolboy football match between the hosts and Charlie Smith, at Heroes Circle.

With hundreds of spectators trying to barge into the venue, a policeman discharged his firearm - releasing two rounds - after the spectators tried to push their way past the lawmen at the school's gate.

No one was injured in the chaos and the spectators were later allowed inside the ground to witness a pulsating match.

A brace from Michaelos Martin carried Charlie Smith to a very exciting 4-3 victory over Wolmer's.

Martin netted his goals in the fifth and 89th minutes, respectively. Kemar McGhie (28th) and captain Javoni Simms (90th) were the other scorers for the Jerome Waite-coached Charlie Smith.

Wolmer's goals were scored by national Under-17 representative Jason Wright (25th), Christopher Campbell (40th) and Dejanni Isaacs (51st).

Move to the top

The victory moved Charlie Smith to the top of the summit on 13 points, two ahead of Ascot (11) and five more than Wolmer's (eight). They are followed by Dunoon (four), Haile Selassie (three) and Vauxhall (one).

In the group's other games, Ascot edged Dunoon 1-0 and Haile Selassie and Vauxhall played to a 1-1 draw.

"Today it was good football from both teams," said Waite. "We took the lead early and the Wolmer's team maintained their composure to fight back. But we showed a lot of character and our substitutes also came in and they played excellent for us and so we won the game," he said.

Waite added: "This is definitely a morale booster for us and you have not seen the best of this team yet and so the best is yet come."

Ludlow Bernard, coach of Wolmer's, said the defeat was a very tough one for his team.

"It is really a hard loss to take considering the nature of the game," said Bernard. "It really took a great effort from the opposition to deny us the victory, but I am still satisfied with the way my team played today."

Continuing, Bernard said: "I thought we got a bit over-exuberant in the latter part of the game and a lot of inexperience also came into play."

Martin stunned the home crowd early, when he headed home a right-sided corner kick from Andrew Allen.

However, the speedy Wright gave Wolmer's the equaliser, when he netted a penalty 20 minutes later.

With a large gathering cheering their respective teams on, McGhie scored Charlie Smith's second goal of the match three minutes later.

However, Campbell pulled Wolmer's level just before half-time, when he outsprinted two Charlie Smiths defenders to calmly slot home past goalkeeper Kirk Morgan.

Wolmer's came out very confident at the start of the second half and they were rewarded when Isaacs put them ahead 3-2 with a powerful header from close range.

Charlie Smith went on to dominate the remainder of the match, which resulted in late goals from Martin and Simms in the final minutes of the game.