Maxwell

Hydel coach Geoffrey Maxwell believes that as defending Manning Cup champions St George's will face more pressure to deliver when the teams meet in today's quarter-finals.

Jamaica College (JC) and Excelsior will battle in today's feature encounter of the ISSA/LIME Walker Cup Knockout at the Constant Spring Sports Complex at 3 p.m. But plenty of attention will be turned to the opening game of the quarter-finals double-header, which will take place at 1 p.m.

The clash is a repeat of last year's Manning Cup final.

"We are going there with the intention to win the game and I think St George's will have same intention too, but they are the defending Manning Cup champions, and so the pressure will be on their players to get a result and not us," Maxwell told Star Sports.

"I think my players will have to go out there and follow our instructions and play as how we play in training, then hopefully everything will go well for us," said Maxwell.

The Georgians have their sights set on winning the Walker Cup trophy this year, after being beaten by eventual champions Wolmer's Boys' in the semi-finals last year.

The Neville 'Bertis' Bell-coached unit ended their preliminary round campaign atop Group D, with 23 points on goal difference ahead of Charlie Smith. The 'Light Blues' have scored 26 goals while conceding 10 in the first round.

Marcel Gayle, assistant coach of St George's, believes that today's encounter will be a tough game, but is confident that his team will come out the victors.

"We know that Hydel is a quality team and they have always played good football, but we are going to go out there to play our game and hopefully we will get it right," Gayle said.

Hydel ended the preliminary phase on top of Group A with 23 points. They scored 19 goals, while conceding a mere three.

oozing confidence

JC is the most prolific-scoring team in the Manning Cup competition, having scored 44 goals while conceding a mere four goals. The Miguel Coley-coached JC will enter today's encounter oozing with confidence, after finishing the first round atop Group E with a maximum of 30 points.

Excelsior will also go into today's game full of confidence after a good showing in the first round of the competition. The Leebert Halliman-coached Excelsior finished atop Group B with 25 points. They netted 26 goals while conceding five.

Charlie Smith High's goalkeeper Leon Taylor dives brillantly to his right to save a penalty taken by St George's College's Ryan Miller earlier this season. - File