Dandy Town 1 PHC Zebras 0

A second-half strike by winger Oneko Lowe earned Dandy Town a win at a soggy St John’s Field as the defeat for PHC Zebras matched last season’s three losses in the league.

The win lifted Town ahead of PHC in the table, although the wet conditions made it tough for both teams.

It was even tougher for the Zebras who missed their inspirational captain Cecoy Robinson in attack as he is in Toluca, Mexico, with Bermuda for their Concacaf Nations League match tomorrow.

Town had the better of the first half as Kwame Steede missed a couple of good opportunities, the first in the opening minutes which he fired over the top from a good position and then midway through the half when he side-footed well over from a Lowe cross on the right.

Then Jomei Bean-Lindo, switched to left back in the absence of Eusebio Blankendal who got a first call-up to the senior national team, shot over the top from inside the box after the ball was laid back for him by Steede after a corner.

Town continued to dominate the first half when captain Angelo Simmons, who had switched flanks with Lowe, drove a low shot just past the far post from the right side of the box.

PHC, led by the midfield pair of Marco Warren and Tre Ming, started to come more into the match in the second half, although they suffered an early setback when midfielder De-Aun Lodge went off with an injury.

Lowe went close again for Town when he shot into the side-netting as Town penetrated down the left side.

Three minutes later a similar move produced the game’s only goal when Steede sent Lowe through down the left before he kept his footing on the wet surface before slipping the ball past goalkeeper Shaquille Trott at the near post. “All season we’ve been dominating teams, dominating possession, playing the better football, but not converting our chances,” Aaron Denkins, the Dandy Town assistant coach, said.

“There were two things that we wanted to work on today, firstly get a shutout as we haven’t been able to keep opponents out.

“We challenged the defence to get a shutout and also we wanted to make sure if we were on top of our opponents that we put the ball into the back of the net. Conditions were what they were, we got a few chances and were able to put away one. PHC are always going to be a difficult team and it was challenging for us as we had two players on international duty.

“With the team we have we’re kind of fluid, able to switch forwards around. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t.”

PHC went closest to scoring when Ming’s free kick from 30 yards was turned around the corner by goalkeeper Julian Rosser.

Town had a setback in the final ten minutes when Simmons limped off holding his right hamstring, giving them an injury scare.

“Tomorrow he’ll go to the physio and we’ll evaluate it from there,” Denkins said.

“Angelo is the on-field leader and will be a big miss, but we have depth. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that everything is fine, but will find out tomorrow.”

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Lowe, 66

TEAMS

Dandy Town (4-3-3): J Rosser — A Furbert, J Richardson-Martin, S Darrell, J Bean-Lindo — M Parsons (sub: O Wilson, 62min), J Chapman, L Emery — K Steede, A Simmons (sub: J Amory, 81), O Lowe. Substitutes not used: E Trott, N Smith, T Lowe, M Mello-Cann. Booked: Darrell.

PHC Zebras (4-3-3): Shaquille Trott — Shakhai Trott, D Usher, D Dowling, D Smith-Lightbourne — D Lodge (sub: K Matthie, 61), T Ming, M Warren — J Warren-Smith, J Sealey (sub: Z Lee, 79), K Hypolite. Substitutes not used: T Place, M Wilson, B DeGrilla. Booked: Dowling.

Referee: M Wyer.