Dandy Town 4 Paget 1

Dandy Town Hornets kept the leading pack in sight after cruising to a comfortable 4-1 win over Paget Lions at Goose Gosling Field on Saturday night.

Captain Tomiko Goater scored twice, with his two goals sandwiched by strikes from David Jones Jr and substitute Angelo Simmons, to bring some warmth to coach Kyle Lightbourne’s heart on a cold and windy night.

“This is probably the best we played and the style so far”, Lightbourne said after the game.

“I would have liked to see more goals but it was pleasing to see a lot of things that we worked on in training come out in the game. It’s been a long, hard road but we seem to be getting a settled team now, so we want to continue to compete and see where we end up.”

After a scrappy opening few minutes of play with both teams guilty of wayward passes, Lightbourne’s team were the first to settle and took a deserved lead in the fifteenth minute.

Striker Jones was the creator and scorer as he blocked an attempted clearance from centre-half Rakeem DeShields with Oneko Lowe picking up the loose ball. Lowe dribbled across the top off the box before hitting a low left-footed drive which Paget goalkeeper Omari DeShields did well to save, but he could parry the ball only into the path of Jones, who buried the rebound.

At the other end, Delray Rawlins hit a firm drive on the run which Town goalkeeper Toran Place fumbled but collected clean on the second attempt. Paget also nearly found an equaliser when Shakir Smith collected the ball from a throw-in to turn and hit a dipping volley, but Place did well to stretch full length to push the goalbound effort away from danger and secure Town’s lead at the interval.

Shortly after the restart, Town doubled their lead when Lowe was brought down in the box by Nelson Carpenter after cutting in from the right. Captain Goater kept his cool to send DeShields the wrong way from the penalty spot.

Paget refused to be caged and would pull one back against the run of play after a good build-up down the left flank allowed substitute Omari Tucker to poke the ball home from close range.

However, this served only to ignite Town, who continued to dominate play and possession, with Goater scoring his second and the team’s third within a minute after a neat header from a Lowe cross.

Substitute Angelo Simmons closed out the scoring after running on to an inch-perfect through ball to keep his composure and slot the ball into the bottom left corner with time ticking down.

Town remain in 4th place with 11 points but are only two points behind overnight leaders Devonshire Colts.

SCORERS:

Dandy Town Hornets: D Jones Jr 15, T Goater 56 pen, 73, A Simmons 90

Paget Lions: O Tucker 72

Teams

Dandy Town Hornets (3-5-1-1): T Place 6 — E Blankendal 6, E Moore 6, T Webb 6 — O Lowe 8 (sub: E Outerbridge, 75min), J Samuels 6, N Spence 6, T Goater 7, J Furbert 5 — N Ntalu 5 (sub: A Simmons, 78) — D Jones Jr 7 (sub: M Issac, 85). Substitutes not used: T Smith, A Harvey, O Wilson. Booked: Lowe, Moore, Samuels.

Paget Lions (4-2-3-1): O DeShields 6 — D Cook 6, J Carpenter 5, R DeShields 5, N Carpenter 5 (sub: A Grant, 87) — D Joell 5 (sub: D Swan, 87), K Davis 5 (sub: K Hypolite 61, 5) — S Smith 6, D Hart 6 (sub: K Durrant, 80), R Russell 5 (sub: O Tucker, 70 7) — D Rawlins 6. Substitutes not used: K Simons, P Castle. Booked: Rawlins.

Referee: O Wilson (Jamaica)