North Village 2 Wolves 3Don Vickers and his Wolves side made a perfect start to life in the top flight after defeating perennial title challengers North Village at Bernard Park yesterday.Last season’s First Division champions took the lead through Vincent Minors who fired home from the edge of box past rookie goalkeeper Rory Dublin in the 24th minute.Village, who were missing a slew of first choice players, fell further behind soon after the break when Dublin was beaten at his near post by Derek Brangman’s low left foot drive.Brangman then sent the visiting supporters into raptures when he struck again on 57 minutes from close range following a neat pull-back from workaholic winger Minors.Village coach Shaun Goater immediately switched keepers, bringing on veteran shot stopper Dwayne (Streaker) Adams for the hapless Dublin, and at least the shell-shocked hosts started to show some semblance of fighting spirit.They reduced the deficit when substitute midfielder Cory Boyce struck a sweet first-time shot past Wolves keeper Daniel Adams to throw Goater’s understrength side a lifeline.On 77 minutes, Village’s chances of an unlikely comeback gathered momentum when a neat one-two with Ralph Bean saw Keishen Bean drill a low shot into the corner of Daniel Adams’ goal.But just when Village were taking control they were reduced to ten men after makeshift centre back Jemeiko Jennings was shown a second yellow card for foul language towards the assistant referee.The sending off saw the pendulum swing back in Wolves’ favour and, had it not been for three superb late saves from Dwayne Adams, Village could have been on the receiving end of a far greater defeat.Despite his team’s surprise victory, Vickers, who was taking charge of his first game since replacing John Barry Nusum as coach, saw plenty of room for improvement.“I thought we could have defended better and we struggled to keep possession at times our pass completion percentage was quite low,” he said.“But I was encouraged by our attacking display and we caused them plenty of problems going forward.”Vickers, who was in charge of First Division X’Roads last term, believed that claiming the prize scalp of Village should give his players a huge boost in confidence.“We can take encouragement from this performance. It’s a mathematical game for us right now and this win makes the equation a little easier.“This season is all about maintaining our Premier Division status.”North Village: R Dublin (D Adams 58), J Davis, K Dill, J Jennings, P Smith, T Watson, K Bean, T Jennings, R Bean, K Talbot, D Hunt (C Boyce, 42)Substitutes not used: P Castle, S Jennings, M LopesGoals: Boyce, 61, K Bean 77Red Card J JenningsWolves: D Adams, M Williams, Daz Simons, J Barry Nusum, J Peniston, S Richardson (Dane Simon, 80), V Minors, M Iris, D Brangman (A Zuill, 75), L Paynter, K Brangman (T Davis, 84)Substitutes not used: J Shakir, L Shannon, K SmithGoals: Minors, 24 Brangman, 53, 57Yellow cards: S Richardson, T DavisReferee: E HolmesMan of the match: Nusum (Wolves)