Wolves 4 Flanagan’s Onions 0

Two goals in each half gave Wolves only their second win of the season yesterday at Devonshire Rec as the three points moved them away from the bottom three in the Premier Division standings.

Captain Vincent Minors fired Wolves into a 2-0 lead at the half with goals in the 29th and 36th minutes before two more goals in the 73rd and 75th minutes from Tamauri Tucker and Antoine Brangman killed off Onions’ hopes of a second half fightback.

“I think we played much better than last week,” said Wolves coach Mark Jennings, referring to the 5-2 loss at the hands of Dandy Town. “We have to finish teams off once we have the opportunity to score goals. We layback and play in spurts, but I think we’re getting better and this is a good result to help us in terms of the standings and a good result to help our game going forward.”

Minors broke the deadlock from the penalty spot after the linesman flagged for a handball on Onions defender Jonny Knight on the edge of the box as he challenged Kyle Brangman. Minors sent goalkeeper Stephen Gould the wrong way with his spot-kick.

Minors doubled the lead seven minutes later with a spectacular volley on the turn from the edge of the box when the Onions defenders allowed the ball to bounced and Minors struck a left-foot volley on the turn into the top corner. Wolves nearly capped the first half off with a third goal two minutes before the break, as Tucker curled a free kick from the left edge of the penalty box into the top of the near upright.

Onions played with more spirit at the start of the second half and put the Wolves defence under pressure. Captain Phil Matthews was booked for dissent for comments he made to referee Leroy Wilson after he thought Onions should have had a penalty from a challenge from Wolves goalkeeper Jahni Shakir.

A double substitution by Wolves in the 63rd minute gave them some fresh legs as Troy Tucker and Mikael Ming replaced Russ Ford and Kyle Brangman and soon Wolves were penetrating more. After Lee Osborne was booked for a clumsy challenge on Minors, Wolves truck two quick goals to put the points in the bag. Defender Lamelle Paynter’s low shot wasn’t held by the ‘keeper and Tamauri Tucker followed up to drive home a low shot.

Two minutes later Wolves completed their biggest win of the season when a long range shot from Brangman down the left side went in at the near post.

Substitute Stephen Upton saw his effort from 20 yards hit the post as Onions searched for a consolation goal, before Shaki Pearman saw his effort roll past the far post after slipping the ball past the advancing Gould after a through ball opened the Onions defence.

“I remember a match against Robin Hood last season when we were winning 2-0 and end up losing 3-2, but I thought we did a good job in the second half here to come out and battle,” said Jennings. “We put an effort in and made things difficult for them. I thought the scoreline might have been a bit bigger, not saying that Onions are a bad team, but today I thought after we got the four goals we had a couple of other chances.

“We’re going to take this win and work from that. I’m proud of the performance but I know the team can do better.”

Wolves: J Shakir; M Williams, A Brangman, L Paynter, D Simons, R Ford (Tr Tucker 63 min), Tam Tucker, M Ming, K Brangman (M Ming (63min), S Pearman, V Minors (L Ming 81 min).

Yellow card: K Brangman

Goals: V Minors (29, 36 mins), Tamauri Tucker (73min), A Brangman (75min).

Onions: S Gould; J Knight, M Laws, P Matthews, S Butler, M Ward (K Szmierek 77 min), M Parker (L Osborne 56 min), P Robey, S Lister, B Amaro (S Upton 77 min), J Fox.

Yellow cards: P Matthews, L Osborne

Referee: Leroy Wilson

Man of the match: T Tucker (Wolves).

St David’s 3 PHC 5

PHC continued their revival with a 5-3 win over St David’s in a battle of the two bottom teams. Five of the eight goals came in the first half as St David’s led 3-2 at the break.

Shakil Robinson put the home team in front after just two minutes, before Cecoy Robinson equalised for the Zebras four minutes later from the penalty spot. Marco Piper put the visitors ahead with the first of his two goals in the eighth minute before Fiqre Crockwell made it 2-2 when he scored from a cross, then was booked for taking off his shirt to celebrate.

Tareek Webb-Caisey put St David’s back in front when he scored from a free header in the 33rd minute. St David’s held that lead until the 60th minute when Kevin Lambe scored to make it 3-3, before Piper (79th) and Shakir Smith (80th) put PHC back in front to stay. Detroy Smith of St David’s was sent off in the 87th minute for a bad tackle on Jonathan Ball.

The win moves PHC level on six points with three other teams, Wolves, Somerset and Onions as Onions dropped from fifth to ninth after four teams below them all won. St David’s are four points adrift at the bottom.