St George’s 2 Young Men’s Social Club 1

Blaiz and Kashe Hall helped St George’s come from behind to beat Young Men Social Club in an entertaining match at Wellington Oval on Sunday.

Ari Cannonier gave Social Club the lead on the stroke of half time with a textbook header only for Blaiz Hall to equalise in the 76th minute. Just as it looked like the teams were settling for a point apiece, Hall’s brother Kashe scored an added-time winner.

Victory all but ensures St George’s will appear in the Premier Division next season but Social Club will need to find at least one win from their remaining three games if they are to avoid the drop, trailing Paget by two points in the race for safety.

Despite the defeat, Social Club coach Mickey Smith is not giving up on survival just yet.

“I thought we shot ourselves in the foot by not taking our chances in the first half,” Smith said.

“We knew St. George’s were going to come at us in the second half and three points from this match was crucial. But as long as we are mathematically in it, we will fight all the way until the end and let the chips fall where they may.”

Social Club started this match without captain Ryan Parris and injured striker Josh Hardtman, which left Bermuda international Zeiko Lewis to lead the team from the front.

The match started in a constant downpour and had to be halted briefly after two minutes as a result of a kit clash, which made it difficult for the officials to distinguish between the teams, but it continued with St George’s wearing yellow bibs over their blue shirts.

Social Club were the first to adapt to the conditions with controlled passes and they dominated play through the midfield. They sounded a warning when Lewis played a chest pass into the path of Giniko Butterfield, but his shot went wide of goal without troubling St George’s goalkeeper Troy Hall Jr.

Moments later, Butterfield tried to sneak a free kick in at the near post but Hall was alert to parry the shot to safety.

St. George’s then came to life with Blaiz Hall darting down the left wing before his cross found Jarazinho Basset at the back post, but he would slam wide.

Lewis was then guilty of missing two clear-cut chances to open the scoring for Social Club. First, he volleyed wide from a good position after a neat passage of play involving Angelo Matthews, Cannonier and himself and he then fluffed a golden one-on-one with Hall, pushing the ball wide of the upright.

At the other end, Blaiz Hall was a constant menace down the left flank and after one darting run he pulled back for Jahron Dickinson to get off a screamer, which brought a good reflex save from Social Club goalkeeper Clay Darrell.

Mitchell Tucker thought he had scored for the home side after controlling the ball from a corner but his drive smashed against the crossbar. That miss was costly as Social Club opened the scoring from the resulting goal kick.

The ball was played wide to Malique Wilson, whose inch-perfect cross found Cannonier unmarked at the back post and he executed a powerful, downward header into the far corner despite a diving effort from Hall to give Social Club a deserved lead at half time.

St. George’s coach Drewonde Bascome brought himself into the team at the start of the second half and his presence had an immediate impact as his team started to play with more urgency.

The home team dominated play and attacked constantly down their left flank, with Blaiz Hall the leader, and he forced Darrell to advance off his line and block his attempt after being put through.

He then beat Darrell in a one-on-one but chose to cut back instead of shooting for goal, which allowed the Social defence to recover and clear to safety.

In a rare attack from the away side in the second half, Lewis put the ball on a plate for Butterfield but he sliced wide after racing his shot from a good position.

The home side’s constant pressure paid dividends when Matthews miscontrolled a pass, which allowed the East Enders to play a ball through to Blaiz Hall, who outran the defence before toe-poking beyond the advancing Darrell.

With the match heading for a draw, St George’s captain Kashe Hall capitalised on a tiring Social Club defence. He was given space to dribble before unleashing a low drive into the bottom corner, leaving Darrell stranded.

SCORERS

St George’s: B Hall 76, K Hall 90+3

Young Men’s Social Club: Cannonier 45+2

Teams

St. George’s (4-2-3-1): T Hall 6 ― J Bassett 6, L Evans 6, M Tankard 5 (sub: D Bascome, 46min 7), I Greaves 5 ― J Dill (sub: T Lowe, 75), K Hall 7 ― M Tucker 5, L Lewis 6, B Hall 7--- J Dickinson 6. Substitutes not used: R Phipps.

Young Men’s Social Club (4-2-3-1): C Darrell 6 ― K Smith 6, A Simmons 6, Z Jennings-Barrett 6, J Smith 6 ― A Matthews 5 (sub: A Samuels, 80), A Cannonier 6 ― M Wilson 6, G Butterfield 6 (sub: T Butterfield, 69 5), B Swan 5 ― Z Lewis 7. Substitutes not used: E Mensah, K Butterfield.

Referee: A Francis.