Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Excelsior's Jhavionne Reid (centre) protects the ball from St Andrew Technical's Daniel Gilzine in their ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup encounter at the Constant Spring Complex yesterday. The game ended 1-1. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

ST ANDREW Technical (STATHS) scored at the death to deny Excelsior all three points in an eventful 1-1 draw and level out ISSA/ Pepsi/Digicel Manning Cup Group two after a doubleheader at the Constant Spring Complex yesterday.

In the day's earlier game, Calabar were forced to claw their way back into a share of the points in another 1-1 draw with less fancied Tivoli. Following a fairly uneventful first game which saw Calabar looking more purposeful in possession, it was Tivoli who took the lead with just six minutes to go.

A tussle between Tivoli's Kamar Reynolds and his Calabar marker saw his teammate Andre Fearon coast in to fire past Calabar goalkeeper Chevon Powell. However, Richard Edite pulled the Red Hills Road team on level teams when he found himself on the end of a Kabari Palmer cross in the 88th minute.

In the more lively 3:00 p.m. affair, a hotly contested battle between two of the league's better defensive teams - STATHS and Excelsior, legitimate scoring chances were few and far between. However, STATHS looked to have sealed the game when Odane Slater broke away down the right flank to play the ball directly into the path of striker Diego Haughton.

Well-struck shot

Only the efforts of Excelsior's Omar Lawrence, who flung himself into the path of Haughton's well-struck shot from no more than six yards away, prevented STATHS from taking a 70th-minute lead.

It would be more bad luck for the Bumper Hall team when Christopher Henderson brought down Nico Brett in the area. Brett stepped up to give his team the 74th-minute lead. With seconds left in stoppage time, it took a brilliant solo effort from another substitute, Kimo Grant, to rescue the day for STATHS. With the Excelsior back line caught high, the substitute ran on to a ball played over his shoulder before firing past Excelsior goalkeeper Chevon Bowen from just inside the area.

"They played well. I think we were a bit unlucky to have the penalty awarded against us but the referee is in charge and that is how the game goes," said STATHS coach Keith Nichols.

"We would have preferred all three points but a draw just means that we have to go out and win the next two games," Nichols said.

A disappointed Leebert Halliman, coach of Excelsior, said a lapse in concentration cost his team the win.

"I'm a bit disappointed that we conceded at the last minute. It was a lapse in concentration but it has been a tough couple of days for the guys with the Walker Cup," Halliman said.

"We also had a couple of players out with cards or injuries. We played with the best team we could find today but we are looking for all three points going forward," he said.