Strong second-half showing leads 'Charlie' past Waterford

Favourites Charlie Smith High began their second-round campaign in the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Gatorade/ Digicel Manning Cup competition with an exciting 3-1 victory over Waterford at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday.

Tamar Edwards (54th), Michaelos Martin (81st) and Lennox Russell (89th) were the goalscorers for the Jerome Waite-coached team. Shannon Brown scored for Waterford in the 72nd minute.

In the second match of the double-header, Bridgeport and Spanish Town played to a 0-0 draw.

"It was a spirited performance from us," said Waite. "I must commend the Waterford team because they came here with a purpose because they played a tight defensive game and tried to see how well they could counter-attack us."

The long-standing coach added: "My team lifted up their game at the latter stage of the match and in the end we won comfortably."

Michael Williams, coach of Waterford, said: "There was some indiscipline in our team, but Charlie Smith played much more disciplined football than us because they moved the ball around much better than us."

In the second game, Bridgeport created a number of clear-cut chances in the first half, but faulty shooting from the likes of Kemar Philpotts, Jay Lindsay and Damarni Williams let them down.

Delando Planter received Spanish Town's best chance of the half, but his close-range volley was tipped over the crossbar by goalkeeper Oral Williams.