North Village 2 St George’s Colts 3

St George’s Colts pulled off a surprise win over title hopefuls North Village after coming away with the points at a windswept Bernard Park on Sunday.

The visitors led 2-0 at the break courtesy of goals from captain Kashe Hall and Riley Robinson before their Premier Division rivals hit back through Terryn Fray and Z’Dao Dill to blow the game wide open seven minutes from the end.

However, Village’s spirited fightback ultimately counted for nothing as Senoj Mitchell popped up with the winner to secure the points and spare St George’s blushes after squandering a two-goal lead.

The result enabled St George’s to leapfrog Devonshire Colts into fourth, level on points with second and third-placed Village and defending champions PHC.

Drewonde Bascome, the St George’s player-coach, attributed the east enders’ hard-fought win to the character his players demonstrated when the game appeared to be slipping away.

“We were cruising and conceded easy goals that should have been prevented, but we showed character to come back and get the third goal,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“That was a good win and we showed some good character to bounce back from Dandy Town loss. It was a good three points that we needed.”

Village, who were playing back at Bernard Park for the first time this season after the installation of new floodlights, dominated the early exchanges with St George’s stopper Jahquil Hill failing to control defender Jonas Schroder’s back pass, which rolled just wide of the near post.

Village defender Liam Evans then brought off a save from Hill while team-mate Dill pinged the far post after exchanging passes with the ever dangerous Jai Bean deep in St George’s territory.

The game took a dramatic turn when the visitors surged ahead against the run of play from the penalty spot. Blaiz Hall was brought down by Fray in the area as he raced towards goal and sibling Kashe made no mistake from 12 yards, drilling his shot into the top left corner past Village custodian Detre Bell, who managed to get a glove to the ball on its way into the back of the net.

Robinson doubled St George’s advantage when he took possession of fellow midfielder Ne-Jai Tucker’s pass just outside of the box and dribbled a yard or two before smashing a fierce left-footed shot past the completely exposed Bell.

Village also started the second half on the front foot but were thwarted by excellent defending from St George’s defender Jarryd Richardson, while Hill positioned himself well to block Bean’s effort and then quickly recovered to save Dill’s attempt from the rebound.

Dill had the ball in the net, but the goal was disallowed as he was judged to have fouled Hill in the process.

The hosts finally broke through when Fray’s wind-assisted free kick from all of 50 yards beat Hill in a crowded box.

Village threatened again with Hill producing a brilliant fingertip save to deny midfielder London Steede’s pile-driver from the left side of the box after being picked out by Smith’s long diagonal pass.

The game opened up with Bell saving another Blaiz Hall effort and counterpart Hill denying Bean at the opposite end.

Dill eventually brought the teams level with a half-volley from 25 yards out that nestled inside the far bottom corner.

It proved to be the forward’s last act as he was immediately replaced by Z’Chai Jennings as Village coach Cal Dill Jr opted to bring on fresh legs in the attacking third.

Despite relinquishing what appeared to be a comfortable cushion, St George’s kept their cool and were eventually rewarded when Mitchell reacted first to Blaiz Hall’s pullback at the near post to finally settle this five-goal thriller.

Village coach Dill felt his team outplayed their opponents but were let down by poor finishing.

“I thought we were the better team throughout the day,” he said.

“Playing against the wind first half, we had chances that we should’ve scored. Second half we bombarded their goal again and their keeper made some great saves but our finishing was poor.

“The game is played for the 90 minutes and if you switch off you give them the opportunity, and they punished us.

“Overall, I thought my team played pretty good but just lacked a little bit of grit and fight.”

SCORERS

North Village: Fray 70, Dill 83

St George’s: K Hall 23 pen, Robinson 36, Mitchell 86

TEAMS

North Village (4-1-4-1): D Bell 7 – K Harrison 6, T Fray 7, K Knights 6, L Evans 7 – S Spence 5 (sub: C Easton-Smith, 46min 6) – J Chapman 6, L Steede 6, Z Dill 6 (sub: Z Jennings, 83) – J Smith 6. Substitutes not used: Jabari Hayward, Jabori Hayward, B Robinson.

St George’s (4-2-3-1): J Hill 7 – J Richardson 7, N Paynter 7, J Schroder 8, I Gibbons 7 (sub: J Dickinson 84) – Q Maynard 7, K Hall 8 – Ne-Jai Tucker 7, B Hall 8, R Robinson 7 – S Mitchell 7. Substitutes not used: G Wade, T Tucker, D Bascome.

Referee: A Francis.