Paget 1

St George’s 6

Jahron Dickinson scored a brace as St George’s Colts smashed six past home side Paget Lions in the First Division at Southampton Oval yesterday.

The St George’s striker netted twice early in the second half to make the points safe after a Kian Butterfield own goal and another from Jordan Darrell gave the visiting side a 2-0 cushion at the interval.

Dickinson, who rejoined Colts from Premier Division side North Village during the off-season, was a thorn in Paget’s side and had it not been for the referee assistant’s flag, Butterfield’s deflection, and the crossbar, he would have come away with a deserved hat-trick.

Jarazinho Bassett and Donovan Thompson accounted for St George’s remaining goals while Paget, who lost key players Butterfield and Y-Ron Astwood to injury, replied through McQuinn Burch’s late consolation.

The victory was St George’s first for the season after losing at home to Wolves in their season-opener the previous weekend.

“It feels good to get our first win of the season,” Philip Anderson, the team’s captain, said. “We have been putting in the work in training and so we expect the results to come.

“I think we played well and executed the game plan the way the coach laid it out. We kept pressing and kept the ball on the ground and took our chances.

“Our finishing was a lot better than it was last week even though we still have to work on a few things here and there.

“As a defender personally it does sting a bit to concede a goal. But it still doesn’t take away that we got three points at the end of the day, which is the main thing.

“Our main goal this season is promotion and we’re one hundred per cent positive we can achieve our main goal.

“We want to get into a habit of winning, and this win certainly helps us to build confidence which we are going to try and build on.”

St George’s have been bolstered by the return of former players such as Ernest Signor, Dickinson and Darrell who all played in the top flight last season.

“It’s very good to have some of our key players back,” Anderson said. “A lot of them are from St George’s, and so it’s really like the good old times again.”

St George’s went straight for the jugular from the opening kick off, pinning Paget down in their own half as they bombarded the home side’s goal.

Dickinson had the ball in the back of the net from a set piece after only six minutes but the goal was disallowed because of a foul throw flagged by the referee’s assistant.

The St George’s striker was again unlucky not to have opened his account when his close-range shot from Thompson’s pullback across the goalmouth went in off Butterfield, the Paget right back.

Paget spurned a glorious opportunity to equalise when the unmarked Robert Richardson headed Koshun Durrant’s cross wide from close range.

The home side suffered a setback when Butterfield dislocated his left shoulder and was taken to hospital.

Things then went from bad to worse for Paget as Darrell doubled St George’s’ lead with a composed finish at the near post after linking up nicely down the left channel with midfielder Kyle Denbrook.

Jason Smith, the Paget goalkeeper, made two brilliant saves to thwart strike pair Thompson and Dickinson at the start of the second half.

But Dickinson’s persistence finally paid off when he tapped in his own rebound from close range after Smith saved his initial effort from point-blank range.

Paget were forced to make another change when Astwood injured his right foot just moments before Smith palmed another shot from Dickinson against the crossbar.

However, Dickinson would not be denied moments later when he flicked in David Signor’s cross at the near post to put the game further beyond Paget’s reach.

The visiting side rubbed further salt in Paget’s wounds when Bassett fired home during a goalmouth scramble and Thompson capitalised on a goalkeeping blunder.

Burch pulled one back for Paget with their only attempt on goal five minutes from the end of regulation to deny St George’s a clean sheet.

TEAMS

Scorers

Paget (Burch 86)

St George’s (Dickinson 53, 59, Butterfield (og) 9, Darrell 39, Basset 61, Thompson 63)

Paget (3-5-2): J Smith — D Steede (sub: K Durrant, 77min), McKario Burch, K Butterfield (sub: R Lee, 38) — R Richardson, K Durrant, McQuinn Burch, D Brangman, J Richardson — Y Astwood (sub: D Curtis, 58), K Hypolite. Substitutes not used: T Smith, A Dean, J Beach. Booked: Smith, McQuinn Burch, Steede, Astwood.

St George’s (3-5-2): C Marshall — P Anderson, E Signor, D Signor — K Denbrook, J Darrell, J Hayward (sub: T Talbot, 69), Z Smith-Tucker, J Bassett — J Dickinson (sub: J Brangman, 77), D Thompson (sub: K Ottley, 74). Substitutes not used: G Wade, W Broadley. Booked: Talbot.

Referee: T Adams