?Jomar Wilkinson, the Southampton Rangers coach, is delighted to team up again with veteran midfielder Damon Ming at the Southampton Oval, as last season’s First Division champions seek to establish themselves in the top flight this season.

Rangers produced one of the big upsets of the early season on Sunday when they beat PHC Zebras, the defending champions, 3-0 at PHC Field.

Ming, who turns 41 tomorrow, joined Rangers from Dandy Town in the summer and scored the opening goal against PHC.

“Damon is an exceptional player,” said Wilkinson, a former Town coach. “Our relationship at Dandy Town was a good one and I’m feel blessed to have him here with me at Southampton Rangers.

“For him to trust me enough as a coach to come back under me says a lot.

“Damon brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and still runs around like he’s 16 years old.

“I like the fact that he’s starting to make the game look easy; he’s a smart player and is helping to evolve this group.”

Rangers have added experience in the right areas, with goalkeeper Jason Smith joining from Paget, who have dropped out of the league after relegation last season.

He kept a clean sheet as PHC fought hard to get back into the match in the second half, their fate sealed when captain Cecoy Robinson had a penalty saved by Smith.

“We expected them to come out in the second half and put some pressure on us,” Wilkinson said. “We knew that we needed to be resilient defensively and we did that. My hat goes off to my goalkeeper Jason, we felt hard done by with the penalty, but he stood up and made the save.

“We’re going to go from strength to strength, go back to the drawing board and constantly look to improve with every game and every training session.

“As long as we stay humble I feel we can compete with anybody. We’ll take some positives from this win and move on. It was a good accomplishment but we have to keep in mind that PHC are rebuilding and going through a process.”

Had it not been for a sanction by the Bermuda Football Association for fielding a substitute who was not listed on their team sheet in the 5-0 win over X-Roads, it would be Rangers, not X-Roads, sitting on top of the standings.

Rangers were also fined and were deducted a point to go with the result being overturned to a 3-0 win for X-Roads.

It leaves Rangers with five points from two wins before their next match on Saturday against the other promoted side, Somerset Eagles, who are the joint leaders with X-Roads on eight points from four matches.

Rangers lost six players from the team that won promotion last season but picked up some key replacements, including Smith, defenders McQuinn Burch and Delente Frost from Paget and midfielder Shayne Hollis from Hamilton Parish.