The taste of victory is still fresh in the mouth of Excelsior’s football manager Karl Downer coming off his team’s 2-1 win over Dinthill Technical to clinch the number one spot in the fourth staging of the Ali Cole Jr Cup on Saturday, August 17.

“It was a very good feeling, an excellent feeling,” Downer said, especially considering that Excelsior hosted the event.

The stage is being set for a chilling season of schoolboy football which kicks off on September 7, with the Ali Cole Jr Cup win being just one step in the right direction to where the Eagles want to soar in their upcoming campaigns.

“It’s important that we see results early,” the manager told Our Today. ” It’s good for them and so hopefully we can build on this.”

One way the squad can build on their winning ways is through continued efforts of strengthening team spirit, something that Downer believes begins with the coaching staff.

“We’re trying to emulate working together as a team so that the young men can see that we work together as a team, they too can work as a team,” he said.

Downer described the organisation of the cup as a success and was glad that his team could put on a good show for the crowd that paid off in the victory.

Allan ‘Ali’ Cole Junior (son of Jamaican football legend Allan ‘Skil’ Cole) captained Excelsior to their last Manning Cup honour in 1989. After his death in 2017, members of that winning team decided to stage the preseason schoolboy football tournament to commemorate his life.

Excelsior now set their eyes on winning the Manning Cup again to put the icing on their stellar pre-season performance.