HAILE Selassie’s chances of finishing atop Group D in the ISSA/LIME Manning Cup football competition were demolished as they went down 2-1 to Dunoon Technical at Cling Cling Oval yesterday.

But, despite the loss, Haile Selassie remain in second place on 18 points, while the out-of-contention Dunoon moved up to 10 points with one round of games left to play.

Captain Hamish Smith put the host in front in the 32nd minute. A glancing header by Ronaldo Lammon sent him on his way to easily place the ball past goalkeeper Shemar Logun as they went to the break 1-0 up.

However, Dunoon got the equaliser early in the second half through Delamoy Rodney in the 66th minute courtesy of a defensive lapse, which allowed him to roll the ball in the back of the net.

They went ahead two minutes later when Marvin Henry’s cross picked out Rommernio Morris, who slotted by a hesitant Chavaun Bennett at his near post.

Winning coach Lamar Morgan was happy with the win despite not being able to secure a second round spot.

“Today (yesterday) the objective was to get ahead of last year’s performance, and we have achieved that. My team is pretty young, so all I have to do is continue working with them and get them organised.

“Our next objective is just to continue our progress and finish strong against the Greater Portmore team to start our programme off for next year,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Meanwhile, Michael Williams stated that he was not deterred by his team’s loss having already qualified.

“Going one goal up we should have controlled the game a little bit more, but it is a very inexperienced team, and as time goes by they will get better. I am not really disappointed because we had players out sick so we had to try four other players,” he explained.

— Sherdon Cowan