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Calabar’s Price happy with winning start
September 12, 2024
Calabar High claimed the spoils, blanking Haile Selassie High 3-0 in their Group D Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) WATA Manning Cup football match at Calabar High School yesterday.
Both coaches though, were not happy with their team's play, with Calabar High's Andrew Price lamenting their finishing and Haile Selassie's Linval Dixon admitting to defensive frailties.
"It's definitely good to get off to a good start, to get three points and a clean sheet. They did well," Price said.
"But I wasn't too impressed with the performance. We were not as aggressive as we could have been. We should have won by a larger margin, so we need to be more clinical in front of goal," he added. "But it's the first game, early days, so we have to take it one day at a time."
Jaheim Rankine's 10th-minute strike put the Red Hills Road-based home team ahead and Kevaun Campbell stabbed home the second after 34 minutes to make it 2-0 before the interval. Sheldon Pusey then sealed the win with a 65th-minute penalty.
Calabar started the better of the team, and in spite of Haile Selassie's valiant showing, they eventually went ahead through Rankine.
The winners continued to create the better openings and eventually added a second when Campbell turned in Franchesco Reid's cross from six yards.
Although Calabar were in control of the second half, Haile Selassie were always dangerous with the hard to contain Anthony McDonald at the heart of most good things the visiting team did in attack.
Calabar sealed the win midway the second half when they were awarded a penalty, and Pusey slotted home the spot kick to make it 3-0.
"We will have to score against better teams when we face them. So we have to work on our finishing and see if we can be more clinical in front of goal," Price emphasised.
Haile Selassie's coach, former Reggae Boyz captain Linval Dixon, said poor defending let them down. He is, however, confident they will rebound.
"We made some errors that cost us the goals. Of course, we have some work to be done at the back of the field and in midfield. But we must learn from this. It is our first game of the season. We will improve because this is a Haile Selassie team that never give up. So we will bounce back," he stated.
