Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Wolmers's Christopher Waugh (right) flies into a challenge with Edith Dalton James' Romaine Lewis (left), while his teammate, Lasarna Bent, looks on. - Ricardo Makyn

Wolmer's defeated Edith Dalton James 3-0 in their opening ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup football match at Heroes Circle yesterday, but winning Coach Michael Francis admitted it was not the best of games.

Francis, however, was willing to give his players the benefit of the doubt, seeing that it was the first game of the season.

"It's just one of those games," Francis said.

"The first game is always a little bit shaky in terms of how you want to play, nobody wanted to make any mistakes."

Francis added, "It was a little bit nerve racking. It was one of the games that you are going to play when you don't look pretty, everybody is going to want to play with caution."

Throughout the entire 90 minutes, Edith Dalton James never looked as if they could score, as most of their attacks were broken up from mid-field. After a disappointing performance and the fact that a member of their management team was ejected by the referee, their coach Pierre Williams refused to speak to the media.

Wolmer's, who waited well into the second half before they got their first goal, saw Ashani Fairclough (64th), Jevaughn Beckford (84th) and substitute Kemar Morgan (89th) all getting on the score sheet.

All these goals came after several missed chances by Wolmer's in the first half. Atiba Morgan, Andre Sharpe, Mikhail Hewitt and Christopher Waugh could not do anything right in front of goal and saw several of their shots ending up high and wide of the target.

Waugh was the dullest of the front men; two of his missed chances came within two minutes of each other. On both occasions, he fired high and wide from inside the 18-yard area.

Wolmer's had also created a few chances in the second half, but it wasn't until Fairclough picked up a pass from a 30-yard free kick, which caught the Edith Dalton James defenders napping, that the hosts got off the mark. Fairclough made no mistake from close range.

Two other games, Donald Quarrie against Jose Marti, in group B, and Excelsior against Cumberland in Group F, were not played. Jose Marti turned up without ID cards, while Cumberland reported 5:00 p.m. for a game scheduled for 3:30 p.m.