Favourites KC still optimistic after round-of-16 loss

HEAD COACH of Manning Cup champions Kingston College (KC), Vassell Reynolds, remains confident that his team will bounce back from their recent defeat and secure qualification to the quarter-finals of this year’s competition.

KC suffered their first loss of the season last week when they were edged 1-0 by Hydel High in their Group Two encounter at the Stadium East Field. Calabar, who defeated Campion College 4-1 in the other group match, currently lead the standings on goal difference ahead of Hydel, with only the top two teams set to advance to the quarter-final stage.

Reynolds acknowledged that his team is in a challenging position but expressed optimism about their chances.

“We are aware of the predicament that we are in, but we didn’t get a chance to discuss as a team separately from the coaching staff, who would have had some discussions and have been making plans throughout the storm to see how we would approach it, as soon as competition resumes,” he said.

“It is about the awareness of the situation, and we are making plans for that second game, if and when the competition begins.”

Despite the setback, Reynolds noted his team has the quality and resilience needed to recover.

“We are very confident that we have what it takes to get all three points from that game against Campion College,” Reynolds said.

“This is not a situation that is new, because we are accustomed to this sort of challenge and so we just have to face it head on. We had a long meeting after the game against Hydel, because we had assumed that would have been the last game before the storm would have passed and recognised where we would have fallen short,” he said.

Reflecting on the loss, Reynolds said KC’s main issue was poor finishing in front of goal.

“The issue in that game is that we would have failed to execute in front of goal,” he admitted.

“I think that was nearly a double-digit amount of chances that we would have failed to capitalise on, and we really should have converted some of them and, therefore, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Meanwhile, ISSA has yet to announce the restart of schoolboy football competitions, following the passage of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday.

The eastern side of the island suffered less damage than those parishes to the west, making it more possible that the ISSA/WATA Manning Cup, played among Corporate Area and St Catherine teams, could be restarted more quickly than the daCosta Cup.

The daCosta Cup, which includes teams from all over the island and is heavily represented by western and central teams, where the greatest damage to the island occurred, could be in for a much longer wait.