Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

( L - R ) Diego Haughton of STATHS, Bridgeport's Adoah Nickle, Deandre Brown of Jamaica College, Kemal Malcolm of St George's College file photos

Jamaica College (JC) hope to again get the better of Bridgeport, while St Andrew Technical and St George's College eye a long-awaited return to the winners' circle, when the semi-finals of the ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup get under way at the Harbour View stadium tomorrow.

With defending champions JC facing Bridgeport in a rematch of last season's final at 3:00 p.m. and STATHS taking on 'dark horses' St George's at 1:00 p.m., exciting and entertaining football is expected to be the order of the day.

Bridgeport were the first to claim a spot in the semi-finals. After a slow start to Group One the Portmore-based school finished with a flurry, seeing off early group leaders Wolmer's 3-1, before closing out strongly against Norman Manley with a 3-0 win.

Heart of champions

JC, on the other hand, looked all but dead following a 2-0 loss to Waterford in their opening quarter-final round game, but then rose from the ashes to demolish Eltham 4-2 and, showing the heart of champions, came from two goals down to get the better of St George's with a 3-2 win.

The Dark Blues may well be the slight favourites heading into tomorrow's game, as not only will Bridgeport be without top influential player Andre Steele, but JC could also see the return of key link player Ashani Walker. He has been out for the last three weeks after dislocating his shoulder against Kingston College in the Walker Cup quarter-finals. However, Bridgeport will still have plenty of firepower and experience with Darren Mattocks and the team's leading scorer, Adoah Nickle, expected to take the pitch.

Toughest defensive team

When it comes to scoring goals, St George's captain Kemal Malcolm has distanced himself from the rest of the league, with 22 so far. However, finding more tomorrow could be a tough task, against possibly the toughest defensive team left in the draw, STATHS. Malcolm will hope to be adequately supported by fellow forward Shammar Shelton, who will need to do a better job with distributing passes to be effective, and also Kemar Cummings, who must return to better early season form.

Still thought to be a team that is a bit defensively suspect, the mere physicality of STATHS could be a problem for the Light Blues. Up front the Bumper Hall school, who won their first and only title as underdogs in 1987, will have the dangerous pair of Diego Haughton and Odean Slater on the prowl.