Dandy Town 2 North Village 2

Dandy Town Hornets scored very late goals to erase a two-goal deficit and salvage a point against champions North Village Rams at Goose Gosling Field last night.

With the result, both teams maintained their unbeaten league record, leaving Town coach Kwame Steede undoubtedly the happier.

“I am proud of the team,” Steede said. “We showed real character to come from behind after being 2-0 down.

“‘We changed our formation and stopped them from playing out from the back. This forced them to make mistakes and we capitalised on it.”

The game started evenly. Both teams had similar tactics and enjoyed periods of possession as they looked to build attacks through their midfield, but neither could penetrate the other’s defence and the match remained goalless at the interval.

Village should have scored the first minute into the second half when Keishen Bean caught Town goalkeeper Jaiden Manders off his line but his attempted lob was too weak.

Village continued with this momentum and started to dominate play. Terryn Fray started and completed the move for the opening goal when his long kick forward was handled outside the box by Manders under pressure from Bean. The resulting free kick hit the wall and Fray followed with a superb half-volley into the corner of the net from some 20 yards.

The champions increased the lead minutes later when Tahmi Williams found Jaizel Smith-DeShields with a delightful pass that he hit on the run, curling his shot between the goalkeeper and the near post from a tight angle.

Under continued encouragement from their vocal coach, the Hornets never gave up and got their just reward in the 86th minute when captain Angelo Simmons collected the ball before going on a solo run to beat his marker and then sidestep the advancing Village goalkeeper Tahj Bell to slot the ball into the empty net.

With the game now in stoppage time, Town were gifted the equaliser when substitute Treshun Smith was needlessly fouled out wide on the right flank. Jomei Bean-Lindo’s free kick into the crowded penalty area was headed into his own goal by Jonathan Briers.

The late goal visibly frustrated Village coach Kenny Thompson. “I thought we had done enough to redeem ourselves from the 4-0 defeat to them on Wednesday night [in the Dudley Eve Trophy semi-finals],” a deflated Thompson said.

“Tonight we played with character and intensity. If you look at the balance of play, we played with quality and deserved to win the match, especially when leading 2-0. Unfortunately, that is football. This is a rivalry between two teams in contention for the title. Although I am disappointed that we didn’t win, I am satisfied to come away with the point.”

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Simmons 86, Briers og 90+1

North Village: Fray 72, Smith-DeShields 78

TEAMS

Dandy Town (4-1-4-1): J Manders – E Blankendal, E Trott, J Bean-Lindo, T Webb – A Furbert – M Mello-Cann (sub: T Smith, 70min), D Jones (sub: S Darrell, 78), A Simmons, J Chapman – C Robinson. Substitutes not used: D Blankendal, J Roser, N Carmichael.

North Village (4-1-4-1): T Bell – K Knights, T Fray, Z Robinson, Q Lema (sub: N Araujo, 78)– J Briers – D Daniels (sub: R Simons, 82), T Williams, I Simmons, K Bean (sub: P Smith, 87) – J Smith-DeShields. Substitutes not used: A Darrell, R Rochester, S Jennings, A Beach. Booked: Simmons.

Referee: A Francis.