Whitmore was during my City wilderness years (81 until they got promoted to the premier to the PL) but others may be interested in this article about a Jamaican club that he is the manager of.
So, it was on brand for Mount Pleasant to go behind in the tie twice, with O&M’s second goal, scored in the 69th minute, putting them in front on away goals.
It is at times like this when you need a hero to step forward, and Mount Pleasant had two. One was substitute Tyreek Magee, whose fine left-foot finish from the edge of the box with only three minutes left in regulation time made it 2-2 on the night, and the other was the man who sent him on, Mount Pleasant manager Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore.
As a player, Whitmore helped Jamaica qualify for their only appearance at the World Cup proper, where he scored both goals in the Reggae Boyz’s victory over Japan, the greatest day in Jamaican football.
His performances at the 1998 World Cup in France eventually led him to Hull City, where he turned a one-week trial into a three-year spell that was occasionally brilliant and never less than memorable, before shorter spells with Livingston in Scotland and then back in England with Tranmere Rovers.
If this sounds like The Athletic is damning him with faint praise, then profuse apologies — Whitmore was wonderful, he just got to England too late in his career and too early for English football to know what to do with him. None of this matters in Jamaica, though, as he played 120 games for the national side, managed them twice, and is now manager of the country’s best club side.
The Athletic spoke to him on the morning of the final’s second leg, when he said that “rustiness” caused by the team’s long lay-off following Hurricane Melissa was partly to blame for a failure to finish off O&M in the first leg.
“But it’s OK, we get another chance at them tonight,” says Whitmore.
When asked how he, the team and Jamaica were coping with the aftermath of the hurricane, which smashed into the island on October 27, he said the recovery was “a work in progress… everyone is trying to get back to normal, but it’s not going to be fast”.
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A stoic response from a proud Jamaican. Melissa’s record-breaking gusts and extreme rainfall killed at least 45 people and more than a million animals. Thousands of buildings were damaged, agricultural land flooded, power generators knocked out, and whole communities devastated, particularly on the island’s west coast, where Whitmore grew up.
“I can’t complain when I see what has happened to others,” he explains. “My sister’s place in Montego Bay got hit very hard. The whole downstairs gone, the fridge, stove, furniture, all of it.
“But all Jamaicans are behind us now — they want us to show the world that we can still get things done. I’m sure we’ll have a bumper crowd when we play in the Champions Cup. We want Inter Miami and Messi.”
So, it was on brand for Mount Pleasant to go behind in the tie twice, with O&M’s second goal, scored in the 69th minute, putting them in front on away goals.
It is at times like this when you need a hero to step forward, and Mount Pleasant had two. One was substitute Tyreek Magee, whose fine left-foot finish from the edge of the box with only three minutes left in regulation time made it 2-2 on the night, and the other was the man who sent him on, Mount Pleasant manager Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore.
As a player, Whitmore helped Jamaica qualify for their only appearance at the World Cup proper, where he scored both goals in the Reggae Boyz’s victory over Japan, the greatest day in Jamaican football.
His performances at the 1998 World Cup in France eventually led him to Hull City, where he turned a one-week trial into a three-year spell that was occasionally brilliant and never less than memorable, before shorter spells with Livingston in Scotland and then back in England with Tranmere Rovers.
If this sounds like The Athletic is damning him with faint praise, then profuse apologies — Whitmore was wonderful, he just got to England too late in his career and too early for English football to know what to do with him. None of this matters in Jamaica, though, as he played 120 games for the national side, managed them twice, and is now manager of the country’s best club side.
The Athletic spoke to him on the morning of the final’s second leg, when he said that “rustiness” caused by the team’s long lay-off following Hurricane Melissa was partly to blame for a failure to finish off O&M in the first leg.
“But it’s OK, we get another chance at them tonight,” says Whitmore.
When asked how he, the team and Jamaica were coping with the aftermath of the hurricane, which smashed into the island on October 27, he said the recovery was “a work in progress… everyone is trying to get back to normal, but it’s not going to be fast”.
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A stoic response from a proud Jamaican. Melissa’s record-breaking gusts and extreme rainfall killed at least 45 people and more than a million animals. Thousands of buildings were damaged, agricultural land flooded, power generators knocked out, and whole communities devastated, particularly on the island’s west coast, where Whitmore grew up.
“I can’t complain when I see what has happened to others,” he explains. “My sister’s place in Montego Bay got hit very hard. The whole downstairs gone, the fridge, stove, furniture, all of it.
“But all Jamaicans are behind us now — they want us to show the world that we can still get things done. I’m sure we’ll have a bumper crowd when we play in the Champions Cup. We want Inter Miami and Messi.”
