KC book Champions Cup place with George’s revenge
Published:Sunday | October 23, 2022 | 12:14 AMOrane Buchanan - Staff Reporter
DEFENDING ISSA/DIGICEL Manning Cup champions Kingston College (KC) earned a measure of revenge for their 4-2 loss to St George’s College last week with a commanding 3-0 victory at Winchester Park yesterday.
Raymond Watson, head coach of KC, cited a tactical change in their approach as the main reason his charges ended the first round atop Group A and booked a spot in the Champions Cup.
“We made tactical adjustments out there and it paid off for us. In the first match we played with wingers and we concentrated on them, but this time we went with more direct football, by having two centre forwards, and continuously playing forward and it paid dividends. We knew by doing this it would have created cracks in their defence and it workedm” said Watson.
KC opened their account as early as the 21st minute when talisman Dejuan ‘Whisper’ Richards pounced on a defensive error to slot home an easy finish. The highly rated teenager was again in the thick of things in the 38th minute but failed to capitalise, his effort going high over the crossbar.
After another tactical adjustment at half-time, KC, through Richards, relentlessly attacked from their left flank, creating two goals in the space of three minutes. Jaheem Richards started the ball rolling in the 46th minute before D’Jone Davis’ own goal put the visitors three goals to the good.
Despite what appeared to be a dominant performance, Watson heaped praise on the St George’s outfit, suggesting this was a better game than the effort through which they claimed first blood.
“I thought they played us better than they did in the first game and even listening to Mr (Neville) Bell (St George’s head coach), he said they won the game 4-2 (previous clash) but he didn’t think they were two goals better than us,” said Watson.
St George’s, who started the match dominating possession, failed to create goalscoring opportunities, and suffered their second defeat of the first round because of it.
According to Bell, his team was unlucky on the day.
“Today we were unlucky. If you saw the game, we made very simple mistakes. Kingston College, I think, they played better than us and I have to give them credit. We’re in the second round, and I hope that we go deep in the competition. This is football and these are some very young players, I’m still very proud of them and I’m confident that we’ll get to where we want to be,” said Bell.
Yesterday’s results
Meadowbrook 0-6 Calabar
Holy Trinity 7-2 Cedar Grove
St Jago 5-0 St Mary’s College
Ardenne 1-0 Waterford
St George’s 0-3 Kingston College
Jamaica College 1-1 St Catherine