Hamilton Parish failed miserably to exhibit even the remotest display of the form that had them in contention early during their 1991-1992 season when they were defeated soundly by the PHC Zebras at Wellington Oval.

Shawn Simmons, Mike Trott and Kenny Mills were the scorers for the Zebras in a game that does not reflect the kind of dominance that PHC actually held over their outmatched opponents on the day.

The first 20 minutes of the match saw little excitement as both sides tried in vain to establish any kind of momentum and consistency on attack.

However, in the 21st minute, PHC's Shawn Simmons latched onto a pass from Frank Ming along the left flank and dribbled across field and unleashed a shot from some 35 yards out that caught goalkeeper George Fox by surprise as the ball sailed over his head into the back of the net.

In the 23rd minute, Hamilton Parish received three successive corners with none of the in-swingers by Chris Caisey managing to seriously threaten PHC goalkeeper Ty Williams and the Zebras' defence. On this day, the Peppers were not anything like what their nickname suggests as they failed miserably with their uninspired and uncreative play.

In the 36th minute, Parish's Dennis Trott dragged down PHC's Mike Trott. Trott was authoritatively called over by referee Rex Osborne and issued the yellow card.

After the 40th minute of play, Irving Burgess sent a brilliant through-ball to a streaking Sinclair Gibbons who had the ball kicked off of him by rapidly advancing 'keeper Williams and out of touch.

A minute later, some nifty running by PHC's Kenny Mills down the right side saw his low searching pass slotted home by an onrushing Mike Trott from two yards out.

During the opening seven minutes of the second half, Parish had enormous difficulty moving the ball past midfield. In the 56th minute, PHC were awarded a penalty when Parish's John Nichol nailed Trott in the penalty area. Mills took the penalty and drilled a hard, low shot past Fox for the third score.

One minute later, PHC scored again but had the goal waved off because of an offside call on Raynel Lightbourne.

At this point in the match, Parish began looking a little fatigued as PHC were outhustling them on both sides of the ball and repeatedly launching blitzing attacks on the Parish goal, but kept coming up empty because of poor finishing.

Parish tried unsuccessfully to hang tough on a day that clearly belonged to the Zebras as Irving Burgess proved to be the workhorse. On their best scoring opportunity of the day, Phillion Webb lobbed a pass to Irving Burgess who managed to get by Mike Dill and send a pass into the box to Gibbons whose strike, if this were the NFL, would have been good for three points. But on a day like yesterday, Gibbons would be happy just to get the shot off.

Hamilton Parish: G.Fox, P.Webb, I.Frith, J.Nichol, C.Caisey, K.Simons, Q.Outerbridge, I.Burgess, S.Gibbons, E.Lathan, D.Trott (A.Darrell 56 mins).

PHC: T.Williams, D.Outerbridge, S.Simmons, M.Dill, D.Douglas, O.Steede, F.Ming, S.Ming, M.Trott, K.Mills, R.Lightbourne (S.Simons 65 mins, D.Rawlins 71 mins) Referee: Rex Osborne.

Men of the match: Irving Burgess (Hamilton Parish); Michael Trott (PHC).