Manning Cup decider - Confident Charlie Smith, St George's in big showdown for title

St George's College
(StGC)and Charlie Smith will clash in the final of the Inter-Secondary
Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Gatorade/Digicel Manning Cup football
competition at the National Stadium, starting 4 p.m.

The big match
will be preceded by the third-place curtain-raiser between last year's
champions Jamaica College (JC) and Wolmer's Boys, which is set to kick
off at 2 p.m.

The Georgians, who were beaten in the semi-finals
last year, are the firm favourites to secure their 20th hold on the
Corporate Area's most prestigious schoolboy football trophy.

The
Light Blues, who first won the title in 1912, won back-to-back titles in
2008-09. StGC, who are also in the final of the Walker Cup knockout
competition against Kingston College, will put their 12-game unbeaten
streak on the line.

Interestingly, the final pits Charlie Smith,
the most prolific scoring team, against the team with the tightest
defence. Charlie Smith have rattled the net 55 times while conceding 13
goals, compared to StGC's tally of 49 for and four against.

support from anderson

The
outstanding national Under-17 sweeper, Oshane Jenkins, who is the team
captain, will be marshalling StGC's troops and will expect to get good
support from the competition's second-leading goalscorer, Kendon
Anderson, who has netted 16 goals.

They are also expected to
receive good support from national Under-17 players Romario Jones, Andre
Lewis, Cordell Benbow and goalkeeper Nico Campbell, Ryan Miller and
Richard Garvey.

The Light Blues secured their place in the final with an exciting 1-0 victory over Wolmer's in the semi-final.

"We
are confident, but only God knows what will happen," said Neville
'Bertis' Bell, head coach of StGC. "We are not going to get
over-confident because we know that we are going up against a good team
and we know that we have to be at our best to win.

"We know that
it is going to be tough, but this is what we have been training for all
season and, hopefully, it will work out for us," he added. "We know
that we are going up against a good team and they have a lot of quality
players and a very experienced coach. However, we have some quality,
too, and we also have some experience, so we are looking forward to it
(game)."

On the other hand, Charlie Smith will be spurred by the
high-powered offence which is led by league-leading scorer Michaelos
Martin, playmaker and inspirational captain Javoni Simms, and Andrew
Allen.

Martin, who represents Cavalier in the youth league, has
netted 18 goals, while Simms, who is regarded as the best player in the
competition, has scored 13, which also includes the winning goal against
JC in the semi-final. Simms also represented Arnett Gardens in the
National Premier League last season.

ready to deliver

Jerome
Waite, the man who stood at the helm when the team last won in 1995,
believes his young charges are ready to deliver the goods.

"We
are very confident," said Waite. "I know that the game will be an
exciting one, but I expect my team to rise to the occasion on the day.

"We
are hoping that our players can concentrate a lot more because even
though we have been scoring a lot of goals in the competition, we have
also given up a few," said the long-standing coach.

Waite added:
"You will see the best of the best in terms of quality from both teams,
but our main objective is to score some goals, and once we do this then
we should be able to come out victorious."