Mona’s Pinnock talks tough

Mona High School's Zhaine Pinnock is confident that they will dispose of any threat in the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup schoolboy football competition after they dismissed former champions St George's College 1-0 at Stadium East yesterday.

Pinnock scored the decisive goal in the quarter-final encounter, with the win enabling Mona to join Kingston College (KC) as the two Group One qualifiers for the semifinals. It is the first time that Mona will be progressing to that stage of the tournament.

"I feel great about my contribution and great about my performance. We feel wonderful (making school's first semis). The focus is to win the Manning Cup and any team comes come. We are 100 per cent sure we can win," Pinnock said.

Mona dominated the first half and had chances to score, however, they had to wait until 10 minutes before the break for Pinnock to fire home a low shot for the opener.

Assistant coach, Winston Taylor, who stood in for Craig Butler, who served a one-match suspension, believes the magnitude of the occasion affected the players but said they showed their resolve to get the required result.

"It was a really excellent performance. This was the best St George's this season. They really came at us in the second half but our defence was resilient in getting the result. The guys played their worse (match) this season.

"We are normally free-scoring and rampant and the first half we missed quite a few chances and that made the game difficult in the latter stages, but defensively, it was a very sturdy performance and the guys are really kicking on now. The semifinals for Mona is the first, so everybody should be elated," he said.

Mona controlled the first half and created numerous openings, which they failed to capitalise on. They eventually broke the deadlock when Pinnock picked up a loose ball inside the area and fired a grounder past the goalkeeper.

St George's were much better after the break and came as close as hitting the bar, however, Mona held out for the win.

St George's coach Neville 'Bertis' Bell believes they wilted under Mona's pressure.

"I don't think we were good enough today. I don't think we did enough to get anything out of the game. We were not composed enough. Our game is to put the ball down and pass it, but because they came at us when we got the ball, we started to go back at them. I don't think we made four passes the entire game and that is not our style. So congrats to Mona but we really weren't good enough," Bell stated.

In the earlier game, KC stopped Charlie Smith 5-0. KC lead the group with maximum six points, ahead of Mona on goal difference.

Meanwhile, in the Walker Cup, defending champions St Catherine emphatically started their title defence, as they dismissed rivals St Jago 2-0 in the St Catherine derby at the Spanish Town Prison Oval.