Garvey rue missed chances in opener
Published:Sunday | September 11, 2022 | 12:12 AM
MERRON GORDON, head coach of defending daCosta Cup champions Garvey Maceo, blamed poor finishing for their failure to win after their 2-2 come-from-behind draw in their opening match of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association ISSA)/Digicel competition against Kemps Hill at Sabina Park yesterday.
Conroy Burke in the 11th minute and Jerome Donalds in the 48th were the goalscorers for Kemps Hill. Nevaughn Myrie in the 39th and Orlando Lawrence, 69th minute, were the scorers for the 2021 winners.
POOR FINISHING
Garvey Maceo outplayed their opponents in both halves, but they were let down by poor finishes and Gordon was disappointed, saying his team should have won the game quite easily.
“When you create so many chances and can’t put the ball in the back of the net, then you are going to have difficulty winning, and Kemps scored two goals and so hats off to them,” said Gordon.
“I think that our performance was good, but it is just that we didn’t put away our chances because if we had done that, we would have won this game quite easily,” he added.
Continuing, Gordon said: “This is our first game of the round, but we wanted the three points and we didn’t get it and so we just have to go back and reassess because if you are champions, you have to be able to come back from anything,” Gordon said.
Kemps Hill’s head coach, Dwight Smith, was happy for the point.
“To open the competition and be getting a point is always a positive result because we were playing against the defending champions and so there were a lot of nerves at the start,” said Smith.
“It is a big deal to actually hold the defending champions to a draw and we are looking forward to bigger things in the rest of the competition,” he said.
Garvey Maceo found themselves trailing midway the first half when Burke outsprinted two defenders to fire home past goalkeeper Junior Stone.
However, Myrie levelled for Garvey Maceo with a thunderbolt right-footed shot past custodian Raheem Reid.
Kemps Hill’s Donalds stunned the champions three minutes into the second stanza, when he arrived at the near post to tap home a cross from Ricardo Coleman to make it 2-1.
But Garvey Maceo quickly regained their rhythm and created a number of scoring opportunities, before Lawrence netted the equaliser.
Garvey Maceo continued to dominate for the reminder of the contest, but they were kept off the scoresheet due to excellent goalkeeping from Reid, who pulled off several wonder saves to deny his opponents.