BY HOWARD WALKER

Observer senior reporter

walkerh@jamaicaobserver.com

IN what appears to be a travesty in local football, Excelsior High thrashed Holy Trinity 12-0 in their ISSA/LIME Manning Cup Group J encounter, but fell short in their effort to make it to the semi-finals.

Excelsior finished with seven points, the same as Jamaica College (JC), who trounced Denham Town 16-0 to top the group with a better goal difference, gaining their place in the semi-finals.

Excelsior, who started the day on top of the group with a plus-two goal difference, finished with plus 14 while JC ended with plus 17 and assumed top spot in what is undoubtedly a mockery of local football.

Holy Trinity, who will be contesting the $1-million LIME Super Cup final on Saturday, finished third in the group with three points after resting several of their starters against Excelsior at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex.

Devon Anderson, head coach of Holy Trinity High, said he had several niggling injuries from Saturday’s semi-final LIME Super Cup win over Wolmer’s Boys and didn’t wanted to risk playing them with the big-money final in mind this Saturday.

“Most of them, it was their first game for the season and it was a poor display on their behalf. They never represented Holy Trinity’s real football,” said Anderson.

Holy Trinity, in eight games in the inter-zone round, had a tight defence that conceded just six goals, five of which were scored by the high-riding Wolmer’s Boys in two games.

They also conceded just once in three games in the LIME Super Cup on their way to the final, drawing 1-1 with Clarendon College before winning 4-3 on penalties and then defeating Garvey Maceo 4-0 and Wolmer’s Boys 1-0.

“I apologise to the Holy Trinity supporters for this humiliating defeat, but we will bounce back on Saturday,” he promised.

In what was scheduled to be a 3:00 pm game that should have started at the same time as the other crucial match between JC and Denham Town at the Constant Spring field, actually started 3:17 pm because of the late arrival of the Holy Trinity team, which barely had time to warm up and went straight into battle.

Excelsior seized the opportunity with four goals each by captain Christopher Thorpe (8th, 31st, 56th, 79th) and Samuel Halliman, who netted his goals in eight minutes scoring in the 60th, 61st, 65th and 68th minutes.

Cadine Graham (12th, 83rd) and Romario Brown (18th, 86th) were the other scorers for Excelsior that fell short by three goals in their attempt to reach the semi-final.

Excelsior, who scored 20 goals in eight inter-zone matches, with their biggest margin being a 5-0 win over Mona High, were spurred on by the crowd but fell short having scored just four times in a lukewarm first-half display, especially when information filtered through that JC were leading 7-0 in their game at the interval.