Butler hails Mona’s warrior-like mentality

Injuries, a red card and a penalty that had to be retaken three times. Everything that could have ended Mona’s stay in the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup was thrown at them, including Tivoli High’s hot start which put them under pressure.

But the warrior-like mentality that head coach Craig Butler has demanded of his players was displayed to book a spot in the quarterfinal with a 3-1 second-leg second-round win yesterday at Ashenheim Stadium.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, Dwayne Johnson gave Tivoli the lead in the 22nd minute and Mona’s Donhue Mitchell was sent off three minutes later. But Kshaine Gordon got the equaliser in the 43rd minute and goals from Romarion Thomas in the 54th and Zhaine Pinnock in the 63rd minute ensured that the 10 men of Mona slammed the door shut on Tivoli Gardens, winning the series 5-1 on aggregate.

With Mona on the ropes, Butler hailed the team’s mentality when it looked like their Manning Cup stay was in question.

“It’s about overcoming adversity, it is about having a strong coaching team and strong hearts within the players. Sometimes it’s who wants it more. Everybody would get a little bit anxious. But we stuck together, stuck to our foundation and what we needed to do,” Butler said.

For Tivoli Gardens having a man advantage ended up doing more harm than good as assistant coach Karume Huie said that the team did not step up their levels after the sending off.

“I think we started to get more relaxed as we thought it was going to be easy. And sometimes a team raises their game after going down to 10. In the second half, we were still in it in terms of trying to get back into the game. But I think we started to play with too much emotion and start to lose discipline in terms of the field of play,” Huie said.

Even with Mona having a four-goal advantage in the series, there was still drama in the 65th minute when Tivoli were awarded a penalty that could have cut the deficit. Despite the penalty having to be retaken three times because of encroachment, Mona goalkeeper Akeem Bernard made all three saves, even with Tivoli changing their spot-kick taker for the third attempt, which got the Mona supporters off their seats and acclaim from his coach.

“It’s really hard when we play games like that. One penalty being retaken three times? But I must give credit to our goalkeeper, he is the best goalkeeper this country has to offer at the youth level. He is a very charismatic player and we all love his abilities in the goal, his leadership skills and he showed it today. He rose to the occasion like a true phoenix,” Butler said.

It will be Butler’s final season with Mona and in the Manning Cup with his focus being on Phoenix Academy players poised to make the transition to the professional ranks. But while the long-term goal is still development, Butler says it’s the title that he and the team are focused on claiming.

“We are going for it. We don’t play to lose. We are going for it 100 per cent and this team has shown that we have what it takes on any level. We can play good football and win. We can grind it out and win. We can overcome bad judgement by referees and still rise and come again,” Butler declared.

Yesterday’s Results

Charlie Smith 2 Campion 0 (Charlie Smith win 3-1 on aggregate)

Mona High 3 Tivoli High 1 (Mona High win 5-1 on aggregate)

Excelsior 1 Haile Selassie 1 (Haile Selassie win 2-1 on aggregate)

St George’s College 3 Jonathan Grant 1 (St George’s College win 7-2 on aggregate)