St George’s 2 PHC 3

PHC coach Quincy Hunt hailed his side’s resilience after twice coming from behind to prevail in a five-goal thriller at Wellington Oval yesterday and remain in pole position in the Premier Division title race.

A week after being dumped out of the FA Cup in a 2-0 quarter-final defeat by the East End outfit, PHC were in danger of having their title challenge dented when Paul Simons and Amon Simons twice gave the home side the lead either side of Enrique Russell’s leveller.

Matters were made worse when PHC also lost Deandre Smith-Lightbourne to injury in bizarre fashion with the defender injuring his ankle after tripping over a sprinkler head exposed in the centre of the field by heavy rainfall, resulting in a prolonged stoppage as groundstaff filled in the hole.

However, in what proved an eventful opening 45 minutes, the league leaders showed their fortitude with goals from Jenico Sealey and Jaheim Iris, completing the first-half turnaround and ultimately sealing a crucial win.

Hunt was delighted with the victory, which coupled with rivals North Village being held to a 1-1 draw at home to Dandy Town means PHC’s lead at the summit is three points with four games to play.

“Getting three points was always the main thing,” he said. “We know St George’s are a good side and it was a real fight. We had to show some real character to come back from going behind twice and I’m really proud of the guys.

“All season they’ve shown that character and that they are willing to keep fighting for one another.

“Today was another example, where we go behind twice and lose a key player to injury, but they showed a lot of character to keep grinding like they did. Every time they face a major obstacle they have been able to get over it.”

While Hunt welcomed the increased advantage in the title race he was also quick to point out that he is not looking any further than the results of his own side.

“We were in a similar position last season and so the players know what it takes to win the title,” he said.

“Any points lead at this stage is great, but we are also not focusing on anyone else other than ourselves. If we get our points, that’s all that matters, we can’t focus on Village or anybody else.”

St George’s broke the deadlock in the twelfth minute as an unmarked Paul Simons headed home Jibri Salaam’s pinpoint cross from the right and they came close to doubling the advantage four minutes later, but Kashe Hall’s volley was saved well by Quinaceo Hunt.

Against the run of play, PHC got themselves level in the 25th minute when Russell picked up possession outside the area before drilling a right-footed effort past the reach of Jahquil Hill and into the bottom right corner.

However, St George’s went ahead again just three minutes later as a corner from the right was cleared only as far as Amon Simons, whose speculative effort took a wicked deflection, wrong-footing Hunt who could only watch the ball roll into the bottom corner.

Ten minutes before the interval Smith-Lightbourne was forced off, resulting in a lengthy stoppage as repair work was carried out on the exposed sprinkler head in the centre circle.

Once the match was cleared to get back under way, PHC responded superbly, drawing level again immediately as Sealey raced clear before slotting the ball past the onrushing Hill.

With half-time looming the comeback was completed when Iris beat the offside trap on the left before cutting in on his right foot and superbly curling an effort into the far top corner.

In stark contrast to the first half, the second provided far less drama and goalmouth action.

Of the sparse chances, Salaam called PHC goalkeeper Hunt into action with a full-length dive to tip his speculative 35-yard effort around the post, while at the other end, Russell spurned a golden opportunity to put the result beyond doubt in the closing stages.

SCORERS

St George’s: P Simons 12, A Simons 28

PHC: E Russell 25, J Sealey 38, J Iris 45+2

TEAMS:

St George’s (4-5-1): J Hill 6 – A Simons 7, P Anderson 6 (sub: D Bascome, 64min 6), G Wade 6 (sub: M Paynter, 49 6), N Paynter 6 – R King 7, K Minors 7 (sub: O Bascome, 73), K Hall 6, B Hall 7, J Salaam 7 – P Simons 7. Substitutes not used: E Signor, D Lodge, J Smith. Booked: P Simons

PHC (4-5-1): Q Hunt 6 – D Usher 7, J Bather 6, N Furbert 6, D Smith-Lightbourne 6 (sub: J Ebbin, 36 6) – J Iris 7, J Sealey 7, T Showers 7, D Dowling 7, E Russell 7 – R Hassell 7 (sub: S Nisbett, 80). Substitutes not used: S Trott, R Simmons, J Belboda-Raveneau, D Richardson.

Referee: J Springer (Barbados)