St Catherine to unveil ‘new system’ when Manning Cup resumes

St Catherine High School head coach Anthony Patrick says his team will unveil a new style of play when the ISSA/WATA Manning Cup resumes on November 28.

The competition, along with other ISSA-run events, has been on pause since the passage of Category-5 Hurricane Melissa, which devastated the western end of the island on October 28.

St Catherine, who are on one point after a 0-0 draw with Vauxhall in their opening Group Three second-round match, will next face group leaders Charlie Smith, who have three points. St George’s College are at the bottom of the group without a point.

Patrick said the revised system used by his players already and it has shown promising signs that will bear fruit in the competition.

“We have been testing the new system and it really worked against Racing United, a Jamaica Premier League team, in a recent practice match, and I can tell you that my players are loving it and they really want to play this style in the Manning Cup competition,” said Patrick.

He added that the return of his senior players will give the team a major boost as they look to secure all three points against Charlie Smith.

“All the senior players that we have on our roster who played in the Tier Two competition and the Premier League are back and they are ready to go when the competition restarts,” he said.

Patrick, who also serves as head coach of Racing United, said his squad has been working diligently while awaiting the restart.

“We have been doing a lot of work preparing for the restart of the competition. The players are upbeat because they are aware that they threw away the first game against Vauxhall in the second round,” he said.

“They know that we should have won that game, but such is the nature of football because we still have two games to go. The leaders of the group have three points and we will be playing against them in our next game, and so we just have to go out and win that game.”

St Catherine were beaten 3-1 by Kingston College in last year’s final of the competition. Patrick pointed out that while the hurricane disrupted many parishes, his group was fortunate to escape major damage.

“We sympathise with all the people from the other parishes that went through difficulties because we didn’t suffer much here back this side. It was just a little rain and some breeze and so we are okay,” he said.