A bottle thrown onto the field that led to an eight-minute stoppage combined with the ejection of Carlos Smith failed to distract Southampton Rangers from their plans to derail Dandy Town in this Coca Cola First Division clash at Southampton Oval yesterday.

Two first half goals by Janeiro Tucker and another in the second half by Jason Raynor sent Town tumbling to a surprise loss, their only consolation being a goal from Pernell Douglas.

Town self-destructed in a game that saw them control the majority of the first half. And once Smith was sent off by referee Chris Terry after 53 minutes their task of overcoming a 2-0 deficit became even more challenging.

Fears that the game might be abandoned arose after 53 minutes when Smith was sent off for using foul language after being fouled by Janeiro Tucker. When the player was given the red card a bottle was thrown onto the field from the northern end and Terry halted play until the offender had been banished from the ground.

Officials of Southampton Rangers and Dandy Town moved swiftly so that sanity would prevail among the fans and within a short time play was resumed.

Marvin Lewis, a Dandy Town player who was not involved in the match, was alleged to be the person who had thrown bottle.

"We have sufficient proof that it was Mr. Lewis and he has been banished from the grounds. We certainly intend to take additional action against him and we trust that the BFA and his club will do likewise,'' said Aldwyn Savery, president of Southampton Rangers. "It was just fortunate that nobody was hurt.'' Tucker was Southampton's ace card, capitalising on Town's inability to finish off some good approach work, as he scored twice before the half.

He converted a penalty after 33 minutes when right full back Lloyd Christopher handled to prevent his shot from going into goal, and then snatched the second from close range after goalkeeper Cymande Davis was unable to clear an Olin Jones corner after 44 minutes.

Despite being a man short Town rallied and pinned down Southampton for a while when play restarted. And they were rewarded for their perseverance when Douglas' free kick from 18 yards went in off a defender after 56 minutes.

But Town's momentum was soon suppressed when Jason Raynor scored what proved to be the goal of the game. The spry left winger coolly shrugged off challenges by two defenders, advanced 15 yards and sent home an angled shot from 12 yards to seal it for Southampton.

Southampton: D.Burchall; R.Belboda, L.Simmons, P.Brangman, E.Pitt; R.Simmons, K.Simmons, O.Jones; K.Tucker (D.Tucker, 68 mins), J.Tucker, J.Raynor (L.Seymour, 77 mins).

Dandy Town: C.Davis; L.Christopher, D.Sharrieff, W.Rudo, A.Wilson; P.Douglas, T.Lewis, L.Furbert; A.Russell (Ni.Webb, 80 mins), C.Smith, D.Simons (Na.Webb, 55 mins).

Referee: Chris Terry Men of the match: Janeiro Tucker (Southampton); Pernell Douglas (Dandy Town)