Robin Hood 3 North Village 2

Lejuan Simmons bagged a brace as Robin Hood defeated North Village for the second time in the space of three days at Goose Gosling Field.

Hood, who beat Village in the Dudley Eve Trophy semi-final on Thursday, condemned their crosstown rivals to another defeat last night in the Premier Division.

Simmons, the Hood forward, opened the scoring in the ninth minute following up his rebound after Tahj Bell, the Village goalkeeper, had made the initial save.

Pierre Smith squandered a pair of good chances for the visiting side before midfielder Jonathan Briers levelled in the nineteenth minute with a close-range finish.

Hood went close to restoring their lead through left back Ereico Outerbridge, whose side-footed effort was pushed onto the post by the left hand of the diving Bell.

The home side managed to restore their lead before the interval, however, with Casey Castle finding himself through on goal and firing past Bell in the 39th minute. Village’s subsequent appeals for offside were waved away by referee Anthony Francis.

The visiting side started the second half brightly, Giniko Butterfield hitting a first-time volley straight at Eve before Simmons curled an effort wide for Hood at the other end.

Simmons struck in the 66th minute with a smart finish to give Hood a two-goal cushion, which proved necessary as Village pulled a goal back with the final kick of the game, a penalty from Che’Kai Caisey after he had been fouled by Dominique Williams.

John Barry Nusum, the Hood coach, said he believed the scoreline was a fair reflection of game before urging his side to build on their back-to-back victories.

“We’ve had two wins on the trot and we want to build on that momentum,” said Nusum, whose side drew away to champions PHC Zebras last weekend.

“I feel like we’re playing good football, but we still need to work on the end product. Last season we were putting teams away.

“We are keeping teams in the game by missing a lot of gilt-edged scoring chances. That’s the final piece that’s missing at the moment. Village had a few chances and Dale saved us a few times. I thought it was a fair result; both teams missed chances.”

Nusum said it is crucial Hood keep pressure on X-Roads and PHC, the two teams above them in the table, and look to capitalise if, and when, they drop points.

“X-Roads are picking up all of their points, PHC {Zebras] are picking up all of their points, whereas we’ve had three draws, which we consider dropped points,” he said.

“We just need to keep the pressure on those teams and hope they drop points at some point as well.”

SCORERS

Robin Hood

Simmons 9, 66, Castle 39

North Village

Briers 19, Caisey 90

TEAMS

Robin Hood (4-1-2-3): D Eve — J Pereira, J Bather, D Williams, E Outerbridge (sub: T Bean, 83min) — D Andrade (sub: C Ryan, 46) — A Nelson, A Russell — C Castle, L Simmons (sub: R Wray, 78), S Smith. Substitutes not used: C Ricca, L Symonds, J Nusum.

North Village (4-2-3-1): T Bell — P Castle, T Fray, K Knights, T Wilson — J Briers, J Davis (sub: Zaniko Hendrickson, 76) — L Dill, G Butterfield (sub: Z Hendrickson, 76), P Smith (sub: D Dillas, 85) — C Caisey. Substitutes not used: K Jennings.

Referee: A Francis.