North Village 0 BAA 1

BAA put some distance between themselves and the bottom two after Marcus Brangman’s eight-minute goal earned them their second victory of the season at Bernard Park yesterday.

Brangman scored the game’s only goal when he side-footed the ball over goalkeeper Tahj Bell from close range. BAA move on to seven points, ahead of Devonshire Cougars and level with Dandy Town.

Village responded quickly to the goal and were almost level within a minute when a firm header by Jonathan Briers was blocked by goalkeeper Daniel Johnson before he collected the ball at the second attempt.

Village hit the crossbar at least three times, with defender Terryn Fray twice holding his head in frustration as Johnson tipped shots against the bar. The first came from a Fray free kick from 30 yards that Johnson got his fingers to in the fifteenth minute.

Thirteen minutes later Johnson tipped a shot against the crossbar from striker Giniko Butterfield as Village were again denied.

Village had the bulk of the possession for the first 30 minutes of the second half but could not find a way past Johnson as he puled off a brilliant save from an equally good volley from Fray from 30 yards, pushing it against the crossbar to deny the defender one of the best goals of the season.

It was virtually all Village at that period with Bell at the other end hardly touching the ball as the home team kept BAA on the back foot. They brought on veterans Lashun dill and Keith Jennings to boost their attack as they pushed players forward in search of the equaliser.

However, BAA absorbed the pressure and eventually mounted a couple of threatening attacks late in the half as they came close to scoring twice to cushion their lead.

They should have scored in the 78th minute when Keishen Bean, a former Village player who had a quiet game in his first game back at Bernard Park, played the ball forward for substitute Drewonde Bascome to run through. Bascome rounded the advancing Bell, before turning his shot on his weaker left foot against the near post from an angle as he tried to find the open net.

Bell then kept out a long-range effort from Troy Tucker who put his shot on target from 30 yards.

SCORERS

BAA

Brangman 8

TEAMS

North Village (4-3-3): T Bell — K Knights (sub: K Jennings, 85min), T Fray, P Castle, J Thomas — J Briers, J Davis, T Wilson — G Butterfield (sub: L Dill, 58), C Caisey, P Smith. Substitutes not used: Zaniko Hendrickson, Zanike Hendrickson. Booked: Wilson.

BAA(4-3-3): D Johnson — N Gibbons, T Burgess, Z Robinson, A Butterfield (sub: Q Lema, 52) — A Darrell, I Simons, T Tucker — K Bean, M Brangman (sub: E Butterfield-Tankard, 78), M Iris (sub: D Bascome, 48). Substitutes not used: K McQueen, R Murphy, A McDowall. Booked: Iris, Gibbons.

Referee: L Cann.