Flanagan’s Onions 2

North Village 4

Ralph Bean, the North Village Rams coach, praised his side for coming through a stern test against Flanagan’s Onions in the Premier Division at Goose Gosling Field last night.

The scoreline slightly flattered Village, who have taken maximum points from their opening two league matches, with Onions giving as good as they got for much of an entertaining encounter.

Ultimately, however, Onions lacked their opponents’ cutting edge in the final third and were forced into some desperate defending at times, particularly during a second-half spell when Village were dominant.

“We’re doing pretty well right now, with six points from two games, and I have to be happy with that,” Bean said.

“There are a few things that we’ve been working on and I was pleased because I could see that we were trying to put them into practice, even though the execution wasn’t always right.

“It’s always a difficult game against Onions because you know they are going to play to the final whistle and keep coming at you.

“They are a tough team, a well-organised team, and they’re a good test to see how you can cope with set-pieces.”

Onions started the brighter of the sides, with midfielder Gavin Thomason striking the crossbar from a superb free kick within the first five minutes.

It was somewhat against the run of play when Village took the lead on 25 minutes, with Tyrell Burgess heading home from close range past Stephen Gould, the Onions goalkeeper, after Phil Matthews had failed to deal with a left-wing cross.

Five minutes later, Keishen Bean doubled his side’s lead after latching on to a through-ball before neatly sliding the ball past Gould for his fifth goal of the season.

Onions pulled a goal back just before half-time when Keston Lewis, the team’s talismanic striker, powered home a header from another well-taken set piece from Thomason.

After the break, Onions were forced into doing the bulk of the defending with Gould twice being called into action in quick succession, first from a shot by Pierre Smith from the edge of the area before denying Jason Lee, the Village substitute, in a one-on-one situation.

It was Gould, though, who was slightly at fault for Village’s third goal, palming a corner straight into the path of Jerome Bailey, the Village defender, who crashed his first-time shot through a crowded area and into the net.

Bean then grabbed his brace moments later with a finish typical of the Bermuda striker, turning sharply on the edge of the box before side-footing his shot into the bottom corner.

To Onions’ credit, they kept on pushing forward and got their just rewards when substitute Vincent Minors scored his first goal since transferring from relegated Wolves, outpacing the Village backline and poking the ball past goalkeeper Troy Hall.