Bennett earns win for Ardenne

Shamar Bennett scored with a spectacular 25-metre free-kick yesterday to hand Ardenne High their first win in the  2015 ISSA/Flow Manning Cup football competition.

Bennett's 76th minute strike was enough to give Ardenne a 1-0 win over Eltham High. It was Ardenne's first win from two games. They previously lost 2-0 to Innswood High.

The match was contested at the Ardenne playing field, which turned out to be in dire need of rehabilitation as the mainly dirt surface fully reflected the drought conditions the island has been experiencing.

The action switched swiftly from end to end after the opening whistle as both teams struggled to maintain  possession.

Ardenne, with the home support, went closest to scoring on a number of  occasions early in the match with headers going just wide and just over the cross bar.

Tactical substitutions early into the second half  swung the game into Ardenne's favour, and saw them press for the win.

Eventually, substitute Bennett went for glory after a foul and got the winner for the Ardenne Road-based school.

"My teammates came to me and said any free-kick on the right is mine, it's something I practice in training so I just went for it today and scored," he revealed following the game.

"Now we hope to go to St George's College on Saturday and earn another three points. No joke thing," he added.

There were a total of five yellow cards issued in the contest.

Coach Junior Bennett believes yesterday's win signalled the real start of Ardenne's campaign.

"I thought in the first game the guys were a bit nervous, but in this game they held their own and fought very hard. They deserved to win, we will have to work on some more combinations in the offensive third," he outlined.

Meanwhile, Eltham's Gregory Allen said he was disappointed with his team for not doing things right.

"At one point we had the game, but we just gave up a simple chance. At half-time I spoke to the youngsters and told them to minimise the free-kicks especially around the box and still we met our demise by the free-kick," he bemoaned.

Yesterday's results
 

Group B

Papine 0 Hydel 1

Greater Portmore 0 Dunoon 0

Haile Selassie 4 Cumberland 0

Group C

Kingston Technical 0 Innswood 1

Ardenne 1 Eltham 0

Denham Town 0 St George's College 2

Group F

Ascot 1 Jonathan Grant 3

Norman Manley 1 Spanish Town 0

Vauxhall 2 Excelsior 0

TODAY'S GAMES:

Campion College vs Camperdown

Waterford vs Kingston College

Clan Carthy vs St Catherine

St Catherine vs Jamaica College

Charlie Smith vs St Mary's College

St Andrew Technical vs Holy Trinity

Bridgeport vs St Jago

Mona vs Wolmer's

All games start at 3:30 p.m.