Spanish Town, Norbrook walk away with Junior Cup all-island titles
AFTER ROUNDS of exciting football at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Bowl yesterday, Spanish Town Primary and Norbrook Strikers walked away with the Football Youth League Junior Cup allisland under-12 and under-13 titles respectively.
Spanish Town Primary and Norbrook Strikers recorded identical 1-0 scorelines in their respective finals.
In the under-12 competition, the final was contested between two of the teams that qualified from the Kingston regionals, with Norbrook Strikers taking on Spanish Town Primary.
Spanish Town Primary took the lead in the first half after a brilliant strike from the competition’s MVP Romar Davis to beat the goalkeeper.
Despite getting chances of their own in the second half, Norbrook could not mount a comeback and Spanish Town held on to claim the title.
Spanish Town Primary head coach Neriah Barrett said he was confident that his team could secure the all-island title after losing in the Kingston regionals final three weeks ago.
“Yeah, we had the confidence that we were going to win the title today,” he said.
“It’s a good feeling. After we lost to Balmagie 1-nil, we went back to the drawing board and fixed a few things and came back and pulled off the win today.”
In the under-13 final, Norbrook edged Glenmuir High School with an early goal in the first half as well.
The teams would play out an end-to-end match but neither team could find the game’s second goal.
Norbrook head coach Delano Campbell said that after losing out on the under-12 title, his players were determined to bring home the under-13 division.
“That’s something that we take personally at Norbrook Strikers,” he said.
“We have a rule that if we reach a final, we don’t expect to lose. But it’s another wonderful feeling for the overall group, getting to two finals and we ensured that Norbrook Strikers had at least one of the titles.”
Yesterday’s action capped off four weeks of competition, which saw the best teams from all over the country competing for more than $250,000 in cash and prizes.