Dandy Town 2 Robin Hood 0

DDandy Town halted a run of four straight league defeats with a welcome victory over a spirited Robin Hood at Goose Gosling Field last night.

Town, who came into the encounter with just one victory from their last seven in all competitions, finally got back to winning ways with a goal in each half from Tomiko Goater and Azendae Furbert.

In truth, the entirety of the first half played out much like a training exercise with Town attempting to break down a dogged Hood defence while head coach Detroy Smith, who was forced to don the goalkeeping gloves, kept them in the game with a number of smart saves.

Having spectacularly denied Cecoy Robinson, with an instinctive close-range reaction save in the eleventh minute, there was nothing the stand-in goalkeeper could do as Town finally broke the deadlock in fortuitous fashion after 23 minutes.

Receiving possession on the edge of the area, Goater unleashed a driven strike towards goal, which took a wicked deflection off Barry Gooden to leave the diving Smith helpless as the ball diverted in the opposite direction and into the bottom-right corner.

To their credit, Hood, who are rooted to the foot of the table and nine points adrift of safety, started the second half with renewed vigour but all too often saw promising opportunities break down in the final third.

Having failed to seize the initiative when on top, they were punished when Town finally doubled their advantage in the 69th minute.

As he had been all evening, Robinson was afforded an abundance of time and space down the right-hand side, with his driven cross fumbled into the path of Furbert, who was able to lash the ball into the empty net from four yards out.

Town spurned further chances to add to their tally in the latter stages, with Robinson and Goater most notably guilty of profligacy, but it was to have no effect on the overall outcome as the match petered out with Town grateful to get their campaign back on track.

SCORERS

Dandy Town: T Goater 23, A Furbert 69.

TEAMS

Dandy Town (4-3-3): D Johnson 7 - E Moore 7, S Darrell 7, M Parsons 6 (sub: J Wilson Butterfield, 75mins), J Chapman 6 - J Bean-Lindo 6, N Spence 7, A Furbert 7 (sub: S Tatem, 75), D Scraders 6 (sub: C Henry, 64 6), C Robinson 6, T Goater 8. Substitutes not used: T Smith, Z Hart, R Whitter, J Swan.

Robin Hood (4-3-3): D Smith 7 - K Naylor 7, L Fulton 7 (sub: A Ebbin, 85), B Gooden 6, N Outerbrdige 6 - D Brangman 6 (sub: D Simmons, 52 6) , A Trott 6, R Smith 6 (sub: W Noriega, 52 7) - E Outerbridge 6, S Burchall 6, A Simons 6 (sub: A Paynter, 77). Substitutes not used: M Hollis. Booked: Gooden, Noriega.