Tivoli start fast with dominant win over Denham Town

TIVOLI GARDENS head coach Christopher Nicholas says he is confident that his team has what it takes to go all the way in this year’s ISSA/WATA Manning Cup competition.

The west Kingston school got their campaign off to a flying start yesterday with a resounding 7-0 victory over neighbours Denham Town in Zone A at Collie Smith Drive. Nicholas, who guided Tivoli to the quarter-finals last season, believes the performance was the perfect springboard for their title ambitions.

“It was a very good performance, because the most important thing is that we didn’t concede any goals, and so I was very pleased about that,” Nicholas said.

“This is a very positive way to start the competition, with a seven-nil victory, and so we will just take it from here and look forward to the next game on Saturday.”

Tivoli were led to victory courtesy of two goals each from Oneil Francis, Dominique Moulton, and Dominique Goldburne.

Nicholas, who captained Tivoli to their last Manning Cup title in 1999, said this year’s group is brimming with belief.

“I think victory will give the team a whole lot of confidence, because I think that they know, and they believe in themselves, that they can win this competition,” he explained.

“I think it’s really not a bad team this season, and so we are expecting great things from these youngsters.”

Tivoli fell just short of the semi-finals last season, missing out by three points. Nicholas insists the experience has made his players more determined to push further this year.

“Last year we went to the quarter-finals and we were just three points away from the semi-finals of the competition, and so the aim this year is to go all the way,” he said.

“We all believe that we can do it because I know that they have it in them. We just have to make sure that they capitalise on every opportunity that they get.”

According to Denham Town Coach Nicholas Smith, the result was not important, given their truncated preseason, and a lack of facilities.

“There are a lot of positives that we can take from this game, but we made some mistakes which cost us some goals and these are things that we have to work on,” Smith said.

“However, the reality of the situation is that this team has been training for only three weeks, and we haven’t even been training on a football field because we are literally training on a basketball court. So I have to say kudos to the boys who went out there and played their hearts out against a team that has been training all summer.”

Yesterday’s results

Jose Marti 4-0 Kingston Technical

Tivoli Gardens 7-0 Denham

Haile Selassie 0-0 Tarrant

Today’s games

Meadowbrook vs Hillel

Holy Trinity vs Jonanthna Grant