Phipps powers Haile Selassie to crucial win
St Catherine High School players Raheem Anderson (left in blue) and Shemar Yee (hidden) challenge Haile Selassie High’s goalscorer Ricardo Phipps, while Davany Morgan (right) looks on during their rescheduled ISSA-FLOW Manning Cup game at the Constant Spring Complex yesterday. Haile Selassie won 5-0. CAPTAIN RICARDO Phipps’ vital hat-trick kept Haile Selassie High in the hunt for a Group K semi-final spot in the ISSAFLOW Manning Cup, after they condemned lowly St Catherine High to a comprehensive 5-0 loss at the Constant Spring Complex yesterday.
It was a rescheduled fixture that had been rained out last week.
Phipps, who was front and centre in most of his team’s attacking plays, opened the scoring inside eight minutes, doubled in the 30th, and finished his first hat-trick of the season in the 51st minute, pushing his tally to eight goals this season.
Haile Selassie was rebounding from a 2-1 defeat to St George’s College in their opening secondround game.
“I think we performed
ITODAY’S GAMES
Charlie Smith vs St Andrew Technical 3 p.m. @ Constant Spring Field
Bridgeport vs Kingston College 3 p.m. @ Prison Oval
IIHaile Selassie 5 ,St Catherine 0
excellent and worked for it. We wanted six goals and our only disappointment was not getting it,” Phipps told The Gleaner.
“We want to go all out to beat Wolmer’s and advance to the semi-finals so we will try and put in hard work, and just have to be focused,” he continued.
The other scorers were Theon Palmer in the 28th and Marvin Emmanuel (45th).
Haile Selassie, who needed to beat St Catherine, did so easily against an inexperienced team, that did not hold up defensively or pose much of an attacking threat.
The winners will next line up against group leaders Wolmer’s Boys this Thursday at the same venue starting at 3 p.m. Only a win will do for Haile Selassie, who have a better goal difference compared to Thursday’s opponents, while Wolmer’s simply need to avoid defeat to advance.
Wolmer’s, firm favourites to qualify, are yet to concede a goal, and have six points from their two games played.
Interim Haile Selassie coach Judith Wynter, who admitted to journalists the team will be looking a new coach next year, said she was impressed with the “disciplined performance of her team.
.“We always want to try and win a trophy, and we intend to go through to the final. There is no pressure, and I think we can beat Wolmer’s if we play discipline d(football),” she said.