St George’s 3 Southampton Rangers 0

St George’s Colts rebounded from their loss last week with a comfortable win over Southampton Rangers at Wellington Oval yesterday. Any hopes that Rangers may have had of making the long journey east and leaving with at least a point were dashed as early as the opening five minutes when they conceded two goals and then a third late in the first half to give the host the three points.

Although all three goals came in the first half, assistant coach Cal “Patches” Dill was satisfied with his team’s performance.

“I thought the fellas stuck to the game plan,” he said. “We needed the three points but I was also pleased that we are getting the system going.

“We would have liked to have scored more goals in the second half, but at the end of the day, it was a clean sheet.”

The match started at a quick pace and before both teams had settled, St George’s broke the deadlock when Lashon Dill’s inch-perfect cross was met with a powerful header from Sage Blair-Paynter inside the six-yard box, giving Rangers goalkeeper Sean Perinchief no chance.

St George’s doubled their lead within two minutes, courtesy of a defensive error. Dill robbed Rangers midfielder Zahkie Iris of the ball just at the edge of the area and was then brought down by him from behind as he dribbled in and shaped up to shoot. Osagi Bascome sent Perinchief the wrong way with his spot-kick.

Rangers’ first threatening attempt came midway through the half when Riccardo Lowe worked his way down the right flank before squaring the ball to captain Dominique Hill, who blasted over the top without troubling St George’s goalkeeper Freddy Hall.

Bascome would score his second and the team’s third ten minutes from the half after he was first to react to a spectacular, diving save by Perinchief from a low Blair-Paynter strike to slip the ball past the recovering goalkeeper.

Rangers came out for the second half as a much more determined unit and buckled down their defence, marshalled by Kamen Tucker, to deny St George’s any promising attacks. Bascome thought he had scored his hat-trick, but his firm blast from a free kick missed the upright by inches before he was substituted.

SCORERS

St George’s: Blair-Paynter 3, Bascome 5 pen, 35

TEAMS

St George’s Colts (4-2-3-1): F Hall 5 — A Francis 5 (sub: G Wade, 82min), T Burgess 5, E Signor 5 (sub: E Anderson, 71), N Paynter 5 — J Carlington 5, D Signor 5 — L Dill 6 (sub: K Ottley 62, 5), O Bascome 6 (sub: A Heyliger, 62 5), J Darrell 5 — S Blair-Paynter 6 (sub: B Swainson, 82). Substitutes not used: J Brangman. Booked: K Ottley.

Southampton Rangers (3-5-2): S Perinchief 6 — W Woodley 4 (sub: D Dublin, 72), K Tucker 6, R Wright 5 — R Simmons 5, Z Iris 6, A Rocker 5, D Hill 5, R Lowe 5 — E Stoneham 5, Y Bean 5.

Referee: A Augustus.