North Village 1 Robin Hood 0

A last-minute winner from Pierre Smith secured victory for North Village over ten-man Robin Hood in a battle to go top of the Premier Division.

Smith’s strike, a rebound after substitute Keishen Bean had struck the crossbar, sent Village one points clear of PHC Zebras who were held to a 2-2 draw away to Flanagan’s Onions on Saturday night.

Hood, who looked the most likely to score until Antwan Russell’s second-half sending off, are in third place, three points behind Village.

Village played some easy-on-the eye football during the first period but created very little, with the best chance falling to Russell — who failed to get any power into his left-footed shot which was easily saved by goalkeeper Tahj Bell.

Nathan Peskett, the Hood midfielder, also went close for the visiting side, poking an outstretched effort wide of Bell’s right-hand post, while at the other end Thomas Brown forced a routine save from Hood goalkeeper Jason Simmons.

Village continued to enjoy plenty of possession early in the second half with Shayne Hollis firing over the crossbar after good work down the left flank by Smith.

As the half wore on, Hood started to take control, carving out the better scoring chances with winger Lejaun Simmons missing a decent one-on-one opportunity before turning provider with a pull back for Russell who lifted his shot over the bar.

With about 15 minutes remaining, Village would have probably been content with a point until Russell was shown a second yellow card after a needless handball to boost Village’s hopes of claiming victory.

Hood went close again, however, late on when defender Ereico Outerbridge headed wide from a well-worked free kick by Darius Cox.

Hood were made to pay for that miss, with Village immediately going on the attack through Bean who shrugged off a clumsy challenge by Chris Fosker before hitting the crossbar. Smith picked up the rebound and took his time before firing beyond Simmons to claims the points.

Randy Spence, the Village assistant coach, admitted it was a “sweet feeling” to win in such a dramatic fashion.

“My heart was in my mouth at the end,” Spence said. “I think our hard work showed and we earned our luck. We’ve gone top but now we’re going to have a target on our backs.”

Kyle Lightbourne, the Hood coach, believed the dismissal of Russell had hurt his team at a crucial phase of the game.

“There were two silly cards from Antwan and up until then it looked like we were going to score,” he said.

“That took a bit of sting out of us although we still had chances after that.”

SCORER

North Village

Smith 90

TEAMS

North Village (4-3-3): T Bell — A Furbert (sub: T Wilson 45min), T Fray, J Harvey, D Tankard — J Briers, J Davis (sub: K Bean, 60) T Watson (sub: Z Bowen, 78) — P Smith, D Daniels, S Hollis. Substitutes not used: K Bean, K Dill, E Zuill, R Sampson. Booked: Briers.

Robin Hood (4-3-3): J Simmons — J Pereira, C Fosker, D Cox, E Outerbridge — N Peskett, M Thomas (sub: C Ryan,75), Z Burgess — L Simmons, A Russell, S Smith (sub: D Brangman, 80). Substitutes not used: S Burchall, M Johnson. Sent off: Russell.

Referee: A Mouchette.