Flanagan’s Onions 3

Robin Hood 3

Keston Lewis, the Flanagan’s Onions hat-trick hero, hailed his side’s “never-say-die spirit” after salvaging a point against Robin Hood in a pulsating Premier Division encounter at Goose Gosling Field last night.

Onions, reduced to ten men after 17 minutes when Sam Butler handled the ball on the goalline, displayed an iron will against Hood, fighting back from two goals down in the first half before falling behind again after the break, only to find a late leveller.

Antwan Russell, the Bermuda striker, scored a hat-trick for Hood, who remain unbeaten after four games this season.

“We started the game quite slow and shot ourselves in the foot twice,” Lewis said.

“It doesn’t matter how many goals we are trailing, though, this team will always put in 100 per cent effort and that showed tonight, especially after going down to ten men.

“It was important we got something tonight after wining our first game [of the season] last weekend. We need to get as many points as possible and then we should be fine.”

Onions were looking to build on their first win of the season away at league leaders PHC Zebras last weekend but made the worst possible start, conceding after 11 minutes when Russell captilised on some slack defending.

Six minutes later Russell scored again, this time from the penalty spot, after defender Butler deliberately palmed the ball over the bar to prevent a certain goal.

At that point in proceedings, it seemed to be a case of how many goals Onions would lose by, with Hood — who have enjoyed a strong start to their first season back in the top flight — looking capable of scoring at will.

Somewhat against the run of play, however, Onions managed to throw themselves a lifeline when Lewis powered home a header from a Nathan Peskett corner on 28 minutes.

With Hood suddenly displaying a distinct edginess, Onions then dragged themselves back on level terms through another Lewis header after good work by Brian Amaro, the Hood substitute, on the left wing.

Onions fell behind again early in the second half when Russell, whose pace was troubling the Onions defence, completed his hat-trick with a neat finish past Stephen Gould, the Onions goalkeeper.

Once again Onions dug deep, displaying impressive reserves of resilience, largely dominating much of the second half with Lewis hitting the post and missing a one-on-one chance before netting for his hat-trick in the 83rd minute, after Jason Simons, the Hood goalkeeper, had parried a strike from Pete Robey.

“I was gutted to miss the one-on-one chance but the boys picked me up and thankfully I had another opportunity to get the hat-trick,” Lewis said. “I didn’t want to be outdone by Antwan [Russell]!”