MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Even though Donovan Duckie tried to deny it out of respect for his opponents, it seemed evident that the only competition in Zone F of the daCosta Cup encounter would be between deCarteret College (DC) and Mile Gully — for second place — because, by all accounts, Manchester High should easily take top spot.

Following Wednesday’s 4-0 thrashing of DC, without even being at their best, no one will think otherwise. Perhaps being sensible then, Donovan Peart, the DC coach, has already put that defeat behind them, with his focus now set on challenging early group leaders Mile Gully for an Inter-Zone berth.

“That’s the plan,” said Peart. “We really believe we can qualify, so we are going after it.”

However, with Mile Gully already scoring successive victories over minnows Belair Academy (3-0) and Cross Keys (1-0), the scenario that DC find themselves in no longer involves staying ahead of, or even staying with, Barry Watson’s team. It is now about being the hunter — a position which no one really wants to be in because this means there is little or no room for error.

DC will next be in action against Mile Gully next week Wednesday.

“It’s not that Manchester High is three or four steps better than us,” added Peart. “It’s just that they are better prepared than us. They have a better structure, resources and they had way more time to train.

“Talking to the players, they are still motivated because that’s how we live as a unit. We don’t give after one game. So, having lost to Manchester, we are going to take it out on another team.”

But even if they fall short of their target this season, Peart said no one will lament as the long-term ambition is to assemble the squad from scratch.

“Right now, we have about eight fifth-formers in the team. You cannot build with that, because most of them might not be around next year, so the aim is to start a programme,” said Peart.

“At the moment I am just the coach, but I would love to be more involved so that I can get the Under-14s to work and build from that. The school board seems to like what I have to offer, because in the summer I (ran) a camp which, for the first time, was incident-free. So let’s see where things go from here.”