Cornwall-William Knibb clash in daCosta feature

Western Bureau:

A clash between many-time champions Cornwall College and William Knibb High will headline today’s ISSA/Digicel daCosta Cup football competition’s second set of Round of 16 games. The game will be played at Drax Hall in St Ann.

Both teams are coming into the game on the back of wins in Group 2 but Cornwall, who narrowly made it out of the first-round group, hit top form to end Dinthill Technical’s recent run with a come-from-behind 2-1 win last Saturday and the Montego Bay-based school will be hard to beat. William Knibb clipped Paul Bogle High 1-0.

Dwight Jeremiah, coach of William Knibb, said he expects today’s game to be an exciting encounter given the history between both schools.

“We have some history against Cornwall College. I don’t think it will be difficult for me as coach to get the boys’ spirits up,” said Jeremiah, who added that they are not thinking about last season’s exciting 4-3 win over Cornwall which was probably the best display of their last campaign.

“They will probably think that but I’ve never told my boys about revenge. We just want to focus on winning the game on the day. We will try to be as organised and structured as we have been and make it difficult for them as we look to win it,” he added.

William Knibb’s flurry of goals has dried up as they have scored just two goals in the last three games after finishing the first round of the competition scoring the most goals with 49 in eight games. However, Jeremiah said he is not worried as their defence is yet to concede this season.

“It’s (not scoring freely) not really a big concern but there are areas that we can improve on in the final third and that can be worked on. What this team does well is keep things tight and that gives us a chance. Mark Lewis has matured nicely and shows that he will take that one chance when given,” Jeremiah said.

In the group’s other game, Dinthill, who are looking to bounce back from losing to Cornwall, will take on Paul Bogle at York Oval.

Oneil Thomas, coach of Dinthill, said they will be coming back stronger after a flat performance against Cornwall.

“It was the first game of the round and two teams will go through, so we looking to come back even stronger. Any team can have a bad day and ours is behind us,” Thomas said.

Today’s other games

Manchester vs Christiana at Brooks Park

Central vs Garvey Maceo at Foga Road High

All games kick off at 3 p.m.