STETHS have nothing to fear, says Wedderburn
ISSA/Champions Cup semis today at Sabina Park
ST ELIZABETH Technical High’s (STETHS) coach, Omar Wedderburn, says his team has nothing to fear when they meet urban area kingpins Jamaica College (JC) in today’s big semifinal clash of the ISSAChampions Cup competition at Sabina Park.
The match is the second game of a double-header, which will see high-flying St George’s College battling Cornwall College in the opening encounter starting at 5 p.m.
STETHS, who lost out at the quarterfinal stage of the daCosta Cup competition, are desperate to win this year’s Champions Cup title having lost to Kingston College in last year’s final. They secured their spot in the semifinals after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Charlie Smith High.
PLAYING WELL
Wedderburn said his team has been playing well in this competition but he expects a strong challenge from JC.
“We are not worried about anything because we are a big team just the same as JC and in order to win this competition, you have to play against the best teams in the competition,” said Wedderburn.
“We respect our opponents but we are ready to put on a good showing on Friday,” he said.
“We are going out there to do our best because we have nothing else to concentrate on.
So our guys are aware of the task at hand,”Wedderburn added.
Andrew Peart, the coach of JC, the winners of the inaugural staging of the competition in 2014, said his team is high on confidence going into today’s contest.
“We have always played tough games and so now we just have to raise our game to another level to play our opponents on Friday,” said Peart.
“There is no pressure because the expectations are that we want to perform well and we want to win. We are not under pressure to win a competition that we have not won in a while but our boys are competitive and they want to win,” he said.
JC who are the reigning Manning Cup champions, secured their place in the semifinals after a 2-1 win over Holy Trinity High and Peart noted that he is expecting a tougher game against STETHS.
“They are a quality team with a quality coach. They are also a wellconditioned team and they are very attacking as well and so we will be mindful of all of those things when we play them,” Peart said.
JC will be depending heavily on the likes of Norman Campbell, Shaniel Thomas, Calwayne Allen and captain Nathan Hunter to lead their charge to victory.