Waite demands best of Charlie Smith

Charlie Smith coach, Jerome Waite, said concentration let them down against Camperdown on Wednesday, after seeing his team threw away a 2-0 first-half to lose 3-2 to Camperdown in their opening Group H ISSA Digicel Manning Cup game.

However, Waite is upbeat going into their second of three games, against Kingston College this afternoon at 1 p.m. at Calabar high.

Waite’s team pulled off an incredible comeback against St Catherine in the round-of-16, coming from 3-1 down in the firstleg to win the second-leg 4-1 and then 5-4 on aggregate, and despite struggling with injuries, he remains optimistic that they can pull off another great comeback this afternoon.

“Schoolboy football is very unpredictable. When you watched that game, no one expected Charlie Smith to lose that game (after leading 2-0 at half-time). But they are youngsters and the concentration went and that brought the opponents back in the game,” he recalled.

“We have our internal problems in terms of injuries. But despite that, we believe they can give a good showing. It will be an uphill task and we are looking to the players to rise above expectation and give of their best. If their best is good enough fine, if not, then we will just have to continue honouring the fixtures,” he commented.

Although injuries have been a major problem this season, Waite is confident they have enough to turn their poor start around.

“It has been affecting us all season. Our strongest team has not played till now due to injury. So we will have to find the best possible team, but we believe we can get the job done,” he said.

“The game tomorrow is against the team (KC) everyone is boosting to win the Manning Cup. We will have more games to play in the competition, but this is the most important one. But the players have done it (come back against St Catherine), already and we are looking for great things from them,” he said.

In the other Group H game, St George’s entertain group leaders Camperdown at the same venue, at 3 p.m.