Calabar's coach David Hunt. - FILE
THE SECOND LEG in the play-off for the 2005 Olivier Shield kicks off at 3:00 p.m. today at the Constant Spring Complex.
Manning Cup champions Calabar and daCosta kingpins Godfrey Stewart are hunting the ultimate prize in schoolboy football.
Last Saturday, Calabar, courtesy of goals from Ramone Palmer and Lennox Creary took a big step in their quest for the title when they clipped Godfrey Stewart 2-1 at Jarrett Park.
Despite that win Calabar's coach David Hunt expects a strong challenge today.
"It is going to be a very tough game. Godfrey Stewart are a champion team and this is the last game for the season so there is nothing to hold back. They are going to give it their all," Hunt pointed out.
'A BRAIN GAME'
Carl Palmer, coach of Godfrey Stewart since 2003, in his second stint at the school, had a dream to win the trophy in three years, but achieved it in two.
Now facing a one-goal deficit, Palmer says the second leg will be 'a brain game'.
"There is a possibility that the Calabar team will be looking for us to cover up. It's more like a brain game more than anything else. We want to score a goal first, but at the same time we have to be cautious," said Palmer.
"I think it will be a very good game. The players were complacent. People were saying there is no way this Calabar team can compete with us. But they (the players) came to their senses after conceding two goals," noted Palmer.
With seven players on the All-Manning team through captain and sweeper Robert Palmer, fellow defenders Miguel Malcolm and Kirk Duckworth, goalkeeper Oneil Wilson, midfielders Ramone Palmer and forwards Lennox Creary and Marlon Smith, Calabar look good.
But Godfrey Stewart, with at least five Reno Under-21 players and four that represented the All-daCosta team, will be no pushovers and will want to prove that their victory over the highly-touted and red hot favourites Glenmuir in the daCosta Cup final was no fluke.
Captain Dwayne Williams, Josimar Crooks, Ryan Smith, Dwayne Forrester and the young Donald Hewitt Jr should carry the fight for Godfrey Stewart.
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to 
