Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Excelsior High and Norman Manley High battled to a 0-0 draw in their Group A top-of-the-table ISSA/Gatorade/ Digicel Manning Cup clash at Maxfield Park yesterday.

In the group's other game, Penwood blanked Greater Portmore 3-0 to keep their hopes alive for a place in the second round of the competition.

Both Excelsior and Norman Manley are tied atop Group A with 13 points each, with the latter having a game in hand against Greater Portmore. They are followed by Penwood (nine), Greater Portmore, who have a game in hand (four), and Campion College (one).

The Leebert Halliman-coached Excelsior dominated the first half, but they were kept at bay by a very organised Norman Manley defence. Brian Richards, Shaquille Sanchez and substitute Tevin Jackson were guilty of missing clear opportunities for Excelsior.

Damone Douglas received Norman Manley's best scoring chance on the stroke of half-time, but his close range effort went wide of the target.

coach pleased

Halliman was pleased with his team's efforts.

"I think that my boys gave it their best shot because they fought from start to finish ... I think my team did well," he said.

Halliman added: "We are a young team and we are trying to reach the second round and we have two more games to go and we have to try and get a positive result from them."

Miguel Coley, coach of Norman Manley, was also satisfied with his team's performance.

"I am satisfied in terms of how they played, but we hope we would have earned all three points, however, we didn't create a lot of chances, but we showed that we can play some good football and as we go along we will certainly get better."

Yesterday's results

Group A

Norman Manley 0 Excelsior 0

Greater Portmore 0 Penwood 3

Group D

Haile Selassie 1 Tivoli 2

Bridgeport 1 Calabar 2

Innswood 4 St Mary's College 0

Group G

Pembroke Hall vs Kingston College rained-out.

Meadowbrook 1 Charlie Smith 6

Today's matches

Group B

St Jago vs Camperdown

Waterford vs Jamaica College

Group C

Hydel vs Cumberland

St George's College vs Dunoon

Denham Town vs Clan Carty

Group E

Holy Trinity vs Trench Town

Ascot vs Spanish Town

St Catherine vs Jonathan Grant

Group F

Jose Marti vs Kingston Technical

Donald Quarrie vs Oberlin

Wolmer's vs St Andrew College