Excelsior, Waterford in crucial clash

Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Former champions Excelsior will face Waterford in today's Group Two top-of the-table clash in the second round of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup competition's double header at Spanish Town Prison Oval, starting at 1:30 p.m.

A win for either teams will see them needing only a draw in the final game to advancing to the semi-finals.

Hard-fought victory

Excelsior, who last won the competition in 2005, trounced Camperdown 6-0 in the opening game of the round, while Waterford registered a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Eltham.

In the day's other game, Camperdown tackle Eltham at 3:30 p.m. Eltham and Camperdown must win to remain in the runnings for a place in the semi-finals.

Leebert Halliman, coach of Excelsior, is very confident.

"I am going out there with a positive approach to win the game," said Halliman. "I know that they have all of their players back from last season, we have drawn with them twice before last year."

Raring to go

He added: "They are the favourites in the group, so I am going out there with a positive mind and hope that we can win the game."

Floyd Coke, coach of Waterford, said is team is raring to go.

"We are very confident," said Coke. "We played twice in our preliminary round fixtures last year and we should have beaten them and so we know the players that are there now and so we are very prepared for this game."