PHC 0 North Village 1

North Village put a damper on PHC’s first outing under floodlights at their home venue in over two decades after edging their hosts in a cagey Premier Division opener played before a large crowd at PHC Field last night.

Justin Bell scored the winner in the second stanza with a brilliant header from a set piece to secure the points for the visitors and inflict a first defeat of the season upon PHC.

“It’s fantastic to have night football back up here. The atmosphere was good but we came up here with a job to do,” Kenny Thompson, the Village coach, said.

“We were a little disappointed in the Dudley Eve in terms of the goals we conceded. So since half-time of the Dandy Town match we really try to hammer home that we have to be better to be more concentrated to minimise the mistakes.

“Today we were prepared for long periods of maybe defending and we have to love all aspects of the game. ”We love to attack and that’s easy to enjoy. But we also have to love the defending parts of the game and be prepared to do it for long periods and we did it today.

“We were sound defensively and we knew at half-time we had to improve a little bit with the ball marginally better in the second half. But we did get that early goal so we were prepared to then absorb, sit and wait if we had to and were able to see it out.”

Jaylen Harvey, the Village captain, hailed his team’s resilience and character.

“We didn’t start off too well but showed resilience,” said the central defender. “This is the most heart I have seen from this team in a long time so happy with my boys.

“I think we showed the most heart today, we was resilient and we came out with the victory.”

Victory came at a cost for Village however as striker Jaizel Smith-DeShields took a knock late in the match and was replaced.

PHC were the favourites going into the match having been victorious in their previous three outings in the Dudley Eve Trophy competition.

The hosts dominated the early exchanges as their opponents sat deep and invited pressure and looked to catch PHC on the quick break.

Village goalkeeper Detre Bell was called upon to make a spectacular diving save to keep out a Jaylon Bather header from Marco Warren’s corner.

The hosts suffered a setback in the nineteenth minute when striker Ryan Hassell pulled a hamstring and was replaced.

PHC continued to keep the ball for long spells but lacked cutting edge in the attacking third.

Village gradually began to probe deeper in PHC territory and were unfortunate not to have been awarded what appeared a sure penalty after midfielder Nacori Smith was bundled over in the box.

PHC went close again just before the half when Bell got just enough glove on Warren’s inswinging corner.

Forward Bell grabbed the winner early in the second period. Village won a free kick in PHC’s half which former club player Tre Ming lofted in the box for Bell to powerfully head past Coleridge Fubler.

Bell was in the thick of the action again moments later when he skipped past his marker and whipped in an inviting cross that went untouched across the goalmouth.

Village were in the ascendancy by now as PHC faded out of the game and threatened again when Fubler rushed off his line to beat substitute Pierre Smith to a through pass.

With the game slipping away, PHC mustered all they could in search on equaliser.

Shavon Nisbett failed to convert on a breakaway while fellow substitute Jalun Hassell had a swerving volley saved by the alert Bell.

Warren came the closest to scoring for the hosts with a free kick from the edge of the box that grazed the bar.

Bather had PHC’s final opportunity when he rounded Bell but lost his footing as he attempted to control the ball, much to the relief of Village who held on to secure the points.

• BAA and Wolves settled for a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw at Goose Gosling Field in the opening match of the new First Division season last night.

SCORERS

North Village: J Bell 50

PHC (4-3-3): C Fubler 6 – D Smith-Lightbourne 6, J Bather 7, N Griffith 7, D Usher 6 – D Lodge 5, K Abraham 6, M Warren 8 – T Showers 5 (sub: J Hassell, 77min), K Bean 5, R Hassell (sub: S Nisbett 19 5). Substitutes not used: M Lambe, D Joell, S Trott, D Correia.

North Village (4-1-4-1): D Bell 8 – T Bean 6, J Harvey 7, K Knights 6, S Lambert 6 (sub: T Wilson 76min) – T Ming 7 – V Perinchief 5 (sub: T Williams 70 6), N Smith 6 (sub: P Smith 70 6), I Simmons 6, J Bell 7 – J Smith- DeShields 6 (sub: S Somner 76). Substitutes not used: K Harrison, N Anglin. Booked: Bean, Ming

Referee: A Majors