Papine High school registered not only their first goal of the season but their first goal in three contested seasons when they came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw with Camperdown High school on Friday.

It was the first point secured for the new campaign and it could not have come at a better time for head coach Odile Richards and his boys.

“It’s always good to get a point. Papine didn’t score any goals for the past three years that they have been playing. This is our first goal, so it’s good to have a point and good to have a goal,” he said after the game.

Richards is appreciative of the small gains that his team achieved as they look to build a solid programme at the school.

“It’s definitely something to build on. We weren’t on the board before, but we are on the board now. You have to creep before you walk, so we start creeping now.”

After being in the points wilderness for so long and losing their first game of the season when they went down 0-3 to Hydel High, Papine is treating the draw as a win and a source of motivation to aim for bigger and better things this term.

“The boys are elated. We will treat this as a win. It’s not a win, but we take it as a win just because it’s our first point,” he reasoned.

There was one ugly incident which marred the team’s achievement when a fracas broke out midway through the second half which led to five players being sent off, two from Papine and three from Camperdown.

Richards was adamant that things like that should not happen in the game.

“This is not what we want in football in Jamaica. This is not what we want people to see and talk about Jamaican football.

“This is a level of indiscipline which is coming from a minimal situation to make it come to five players all getting red cards. We could have avoided that,” he suggested.

Papine’s good fortune in the competition will be severely tested on Tuesday when they take on the unbeaten Wolmer’s Boys who have scored four goals without conceding in their first two games of the season.