Unbeaten William Knibb, Cedric Titus clash in dacosta Cup
A TOP-OF-THE-TABLE clash in Zone C will highlight this afternoon’s round of matches in the Issa/digicel dacosta Cup football competition.
William Knibb Memorial High School and Cedric Titus High School, both on the maximum 15 points from five games, will meet at Cedric Titus at 3:30 p.m.
With a mammoth goal difference of 33 as opposed to Cedric Titus’ 13, Williams Knibb will start the slight favourites in today’s encounter.
William Knibb are coming off a 9-0 win over Muschett High last Saturday despite resting six starters. On the other hand, Cedric Titus, who also rested players, narrowly defeated Herbert Morrison Technical 2-1.
Dwight Jeremiah, coach of William Knibb, said their approach will be the same as they aim to top the zone.
“It’s just like any other game. The aim is to win the zone, and to do that, we have to win all our games. Cedric Titus are next in line, so that’s what we will have to do,” Jeremiah said.
“I don’t think there is a player that would be thinking about going out there for a draw. Bragging rights are always at stake. It’s a derby with both of us in good form. Yes, we have been more prolific and more defensively sound, but none of that counts when we get into the game,” he added.
William Knibb are one of only two schools who have not conceded any goals so far this season, however, Jeremiah accepts that this game will be a big test for their defence.
“We expect our defensive unit, which for us is the whole team, to be as good as they have been throughout. You can say we will be tested defensively, but we can also look at the fact that Cedric Titus will have a very difficult time in trying to break us down and this is how we want to look at it,” Jeremiah said.
Assistant coach of Cedric Titus, Derrick Pryce, said their aim is to stop their counterparts from scoring and penetrate their defence, which should be made a bit easier given that he is quite familiar with the William Knibb set-up.
“It’s all about getting things right and nullifying the opponent. Looking at the results, William Knibb are a free-flowing team so the objective is to stop them from scoring freely. From there it will be up to us to create chances and score,” said Pryce, who was assistant coach of William Knibb’s dacosta Cup and Under-16 teams last season.
“It doesn’t take a great defence not to concede against the teams in the group. Penetrating the defence is not something we cannot do. Also, remember I was one of those who helped to build that defence. Knowing how those players operate will be advantageous to Cedric Titus,” he added.