No room for complacency, says Bernard

Despite finishing the first round of the 2021 Manning Cup undefeated, Kingston College (KC) head coach Ludlow Bernard has warned against any drop of form from his players as the truncated season heads into the business end of the competition.

KC will face Charlie Smith in the first match of their Group Two quarter-final round tomorrow at Stadium East at 3 p.m., as they target yet another deep title run.

KC won all five of their Group C preliminary games, scoring 19 goals and conceding one in their final game against St Catherine High on Monday, which they won 2-1. With the shortened schedule and the preparation time, Bernard said that they have no room to be complacent.

"It (quarter-final round) does not allow for trial and error situations," Bernard said. "So we have to get it right, right now and that is the challenge of the coaching staff."

KC are in a quarter-final group consisting of Charlie Smith, Kingston Technical and Excelsior High and Bernard feels that their unbeaten first-round record gives them the better edge in terms of form.

"We always have to remind ourselves that these are schoolboys we are dealing with and also with no football being played for quite a while, sometimes the demands that we make on them tend to be unreasonable in some instances," Bernard said. "(But) we are the only team so far with a perfect win record. So I think that's a good momentum to go into the next round."

Bernard says that there are injury concerns for his team as Carrick Stewart injured his hand in the St Catherine game, while Khalifah Richards has a groin problem which they have been addressing throughout the week. In tomorrow's opening Group Two quarter-final game, Excelsior will face Kingston Technical at 1 p.m. at Stadium East. Excelsior and St Andrew Technical High were the two schools included in the quarter-final round after Camperdown High and Tivoli High were kicked out of the competition for fielding ineligible players.