Norman Manley too hot for Mona

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

LAST YEAR'S beaten finalists, Norman Manley, continued their impressive start to the ISSA/Pepsi/JN Manning Cup season when they eased past Mona 4-0 in a scrappy fixture at the Tinson Pen field yesterday.

Norman Manley's captain Norman Bailey had a hat-trick in the encounter, but, in a bizarre start to the game, his first two goals came from the penalty spot. Bailey, one of the top scorers in last year's competition, converted from the spot in the sixth minute to give his team the lead.

Thirteen minutes later, the captain was brought down in the box after an industrious run down the left flank which saw Mona give away a second straight penalty.

Once again, Bailey stepped to the fore, putting Mona a second goal behind, when he slotted to the same side of the goal to beat a flat-footed Mona custodian, Ron Graham.

Andre Bailey put the slow-placed game, played on a noticeably unevenly grassed pitch, to rest when he bolted into the area to fire home a Nicholas Anderson square from two metres away in the 29th minute.

Though Mona came out a brighter team in the second half, Bailey completed his hat-trick two minutes after the resumption when he beat Graham from 25 metres out. Bailey whipped a dipping free kick over the wall which went to the goalkeeper's right, but with the attempt bouncing right in front of goal, perhaps he should have done a better job of keeping it out.

Comfortable win

"It's always going to be hard to motivate a team when they think their opponents are weaker than they are," said Norman Manley's coach Alrick Clarke, who has seen his team score 11 goals in two games.

"We won comfortably in the end, but I think we could have scored more goals. Our ball movement was good, and we have been definitely creating the chances," he said.

With six points, Norman Manley remain behind group leaders Spanish Town, who moved to nine with a 2-1 win over Edith Dalton James at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday. Mona remain winless at the bottom of the group.

In the day's other two games, which were played in Group D, a struggling Tivoli Gardens got their first win of the season when they beat Kingston High 4-0, while group leaders Eltham moved to seven points after turning back Meadowbrook 2-1.

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS

Group B: Norman Manley 4 Mona 0, Spanish Town 2 Edith Dalton 1. Group D: Eltham High 2 Meadowbrook 1, Tivoli High 4 Kingston High 0.

TODAY'S GAMES

Group A: Waterford vs St. Mary's College, Dunoon Tech vs Tarrant. Group B: Penwood vs Innswood, Charlie Smith vs Jonathan Grant. Group E: Jamaica College vs Calabar.