North Village 2 Boulevard 4

Boulevard produced a memorable comeback to end their league campaign on a winning note in a six-goal thriller at Bernard Park yesterday.

Trailing 2-0 at the break, the visiting side rallied and scored four unanswered goals in the second half to leave the home side and their fans alike shell-shocked.

“It was a phenomenal performance,” said Boulevard player-coach Ian Coke, who netted the third goal. “The guys showed a lot of grit and team spirit to come back. It’s never easy coming back from two fast goals like that so we tried to keep the scoreline pretty. Two nil isn’t really the best lead to have; score one goal and we’re right back in it as we showed today.

“We knew we weren’t really out of the game from the first half. We controlled some nice pieces of play at the beginning and was just unfortunate we didn’t execute.”

Boulevard dominated the early exchanges with forwards Khiry Easton, Clay Darrell and Coke keep Village’s defence on their toes with their movement and pace in the attacking third.

Coke brought off a fingertip save from Terryn Fray, Village’s makeshift goalkeeper, as the visiting side kept their foot on the gas in search of the breakthrough. However, the game was turned on its head when Village struck twice in the space of a minute against the run of play to open up a two-goal cushion.

Midfielder Jonathan Briers opened the scoring when he rose above the defence to head home Giniko Butterfield’s corner. Before Boulevard knew what had hit them they fell further behind when Keith Jennings ran onto Rai Simons’s back-heeled pass and slotted past Boulevard goalkeeper Antione Famous.

Boulevard reorganised themselves at the back and regained control and were unfortunate not to pull one back by the break.

Midfielder Ernest Trott had a header cleared off the line while Fray made a diving save to deny Darrell to protect Village’s two-goal advantage at the half.

Boulevard pressed from the start of the second half and their pressure eventually told when Darrell cut in from out wide, dribbled past two defenders and beat Fray with a shot from an angle.

The visiting side threatened again when Darrell’s pass sliced the defence open but Trott and Coke were unable to capitalise.

Village nearly extended their lead during a rare counter attack. However, last man Jahleel Crockwell timed his tackle superbly to thwart Simons.

Boulevard continued to dominate possession and after stretching their opponents struck twice in a minute.

Midfielder Dunn-Ya Taylor cancelled out Village’s lead when he flicked Zico Stovell’s diagonal cross into the roof of the net at the near post.

The dust had hardly settled when Fray was picking the ball out of the net again after Coke ran on to Nico Smith’s pass over the defence and calmly slotted home.

Trott then capped his team’s remarkable comeback with a neat finish. Taylor flicked on substitute Teron Butterfield’s cross in the box, which Trott swept in at the back post.

SCORERS

North Village: Briers 17, Jennings 18

Boulevard: Darrell 52, Taylor 65, Coke 66, Trott 70

TEAMS

North Village (4-4-2): T Fray — Z Hendrickson, J Thomas (sub: W Shakir, 89min), K Dill, K Knights — J Briers, K Jennings, G Butterfield (sub: P Smith, 68), C Caisey — R Simons, M Thomas (sub: J Smith-DeShields, 75). Substitutes not used: D Dillas.

Boulevard (4-4-2): A Famous — Z Stovell, K Smith (sub: T Butterfield, 74), J Crockwell, A Foggo — N Smith, D Taylor, E Trott, K Easton (sub: T Stovell, 78) — C Darrell, I Coke.

Referee: A Francis.