Southampton Rangers 3
Hamilton Parish 1

Southampton Rangers set up an intriguing last-day fight for survival between three teams after taking all three points in a 3-1 win against bottom team Hamilton Parish.

Rangers, needing to win to have any chance of beating the drop for the third successive season, were two goals up inside the first five minutes before adding a third midway through the half when striker Khalil Symonds notched his second of the match.

A host of missed chances in the second half and a goal from Parish’s Donovan Thompson kept it interesting before Rangers held on comfortably to seal their third win of the season.

Rangers are now a point behind eighth-placed Devonshire Colts and two behind Somerset Trojans with just one match remaining.

Rangers are at home to PHC Zebras next Sunday while Colts meet Boulevard and Somerset Trojans are at home to Robin Hood.

“We’ll take on PHC and hopefully we’ll win the game, nothing less,” Ezekiel Stoneham, the Rangers captain, said.

“We knew we had to put a lot of pressure on them [Parish], we did that and got to sit back the rest of the game.

“The team talk at half-time was just to keep calm and everybody did that. Of course everybody has lapses but it wasn’t too bad and we’re happy with the result.”

Rangers had two good chances inside the first 70 seconds of the game, the first a volley from Symonds that smashed against the crossbar before Jahkai Dyer broke the deadlock 20 seconds later when he converted from a tight angle on the left side of the box.

Rangers, who have an inferior goal difference to both Colts and Somerset, satisfied their thirst for goals when Symonds doubled their lead minutes later, slotting the ball past goalkeeper Dion Minks after a long ball down the middle opened the Parish defence.

Parish were facing a hammering when Symonds made it 3-0 in the 20th minute, getting on the end of Dyer’s cross from the left and side-footing calmly past Minks.

The match was Southampton’s to lose after that, although Parish did play with more intent early in the second half as Patrick Richardson volleyed just wide from inside the box.

At the other end, Keedai Astwood, who had just come on as a substitute, was sent through on the left only to see the advancing Minks block his shot as the two collided and Astwood injured his knee in the process.

He was substituted after just 18 minutes of the pitch.

Parish pulled a goal back through Thompson in the 68th minute, getting on the end of a ball into the box and steering it under the body of Perinchief.

Rangers missed some good chances after that to cushion their lead with substitute Nicholas Mello lifting a shot over the crossbar. Then Shakil Swan drove a low effort wide of the far post with the goal at his mercy.

Minks blocked another chance from Swan as Rangers kept the pressure on late in the game.

TEAMS

Scorers

Southampton Rangers (Dyer 1, Symonds 4, 20)

Hamilton Parish (Thompson 68)

Southampton Rangers (4-4-2): S Perinchief — A Rocker, N Smith, J Hill, K Simmons — V Perinchief, (sub: K Astwood, 49min (sub: D Jones, 67)), E Stoneham, R Lowe, J Dyer — S Swan, K Symonds (sub: N Mello, 71). Substitute not used: E Simmons.

Hamilton Parish (4-4-2): D Minks — E Parsons (sub: C Wade, 61), A Smith, T Webb, J Hunter-Tucker — C Caisey, I Creighton, P Richardson, R Matthie (sub: B Furqan, 90) — D Thompson, R Tyrell. Substitute not used: K Fox. Booked: Thompson, Tyrell.

Referee: A Bailey.