PHC 1

Flanagan’s Onions 2

Flanagan’s Onions, the Premier Division cellar dwellers, produced a giant-slaying act after coming from behind to shock leaders PHC Zebras at Southampton Oval yesterday.

Martel Laws’s late winner completed the visiting side’s impressive comeback to earn them their first points of the season and lift them off the bottom of the table.

Cecoy Robinson gave Zebras an early lead before Gavin Thomason equalised to hand Onions a foothold in a match that the home team should have sewn up long before Laws’s late heroics.

Zebras, who suffered their first loss of the season, were reduced to ten men in the 71st minute when midfielder Diondre Dowling was shown a straight red for elbowing an opponent in the face and Onions made full use of their numerical advantage.

“We are very happy to actually get a result today, and away from home, and hopefully we can kick on now,” Mick Ward, the Flanagan’s Onions coach, said. “Obviously they had their chances. But I felt we were better composed and tactically better in the second half and fully deserved the victory.”

Zebras had no-one else to blame for coming away empty-handed from a match they should have easily won.

After Smith had put his team ahead, the home side lost their cutting edge in front of goal and ultimately paid the price. Making defeat even tougher to stomach for the Zebras was the fact that their nearest rivals — Robin Hood, North Village and Somerset Trojans — all dropped points.

Zebras still top the standings on goal difference ahead of St George’s, who have proved that they will not be pushovers on their return to top-flight football. PHC entered yesterday’s game as the overwhelming favourites and, after three-straight league wins, appeared to be well on their way to No 4 after Robinson broke the deadlock not long after kick off.

Shakir Smith, the Zebras striker, played into space and squared it across goal where Robinson was left with the easy task of tapping into an empty net after Stephen Gould, the Onions goalkeeper, had committed himself.

The opener came as no real surprise as Onions had flirted with danger by playing a high line against a pacy Zebras attack that was given too much time and space.

Zebras came close to doubling their advantage when Smith was sent through in the area, but the striker took one touch too many to allow Gould enough time to race off his line to narrow the angle and the chance went begging.

Onions switched to a 4-4-2 formation at the start of the second half and the tactical ploy worked like a charm as midfielder Thomason wriggled past two defenders before squeezing off a shot from 20 yards past the outstretched fingertips of Jay Smith, the PHC goalkeeper.

The goal clearly lifted Onions but they were far from secure as Zebras continued to carve out chances with Jahnai Raynor, Robinson and Smith all going close.

Zebras were dealt a heavy blow when Dowling was sent for an early shower after going into a tackle with his elbow raised. The home side then had a confident appeal for a handball in the penalty box fall on deaf ears but the worst was yet to come.

What had earlier seemed unthinkable became reality when Laws fired in from close range after being fed by Thomason, who rolled his marker and slipped a pass to his unmarked team-mate.