X- Roads Warriors 2 Robin Hood 3

Andre Mussenden came off the bench and grabbed a stoppage time winner to secure the points for Robin Hood at Garrison Field yesterday.

Just when it seemed as though Jaman Lottimore’s 85th minute equaliser had rescued a point for hosts X-Roads, Mussenden pounced in the third minute of added time to finally settle what was a tight Premier Division contest.

Hood made hard work of it though, having squandered numerous chances and the lead twice in a match they should have easily won by a wider margin.

“That’s one of our worst performances of the season,” Dante’ Leverock, the Hood player/coach, said. “We were poor today, letting them back in the match.

“We’ve played better when we’ve lost and so we must find this balance.

“It was a poor performance. But we got the result and so credit to the boys.”

As for Mussenden’s late winner, Leverock added: “We go over things like that in training when the game is tied; what we must do to execute and we knew this was like a cup final today.”

Hood pressed from the opening kick-off with Kwame Naylor angling a shot from inside the box wide of the target. Erico Outerbridge then failed to a get a boot to Naylor’s skewed effort in the goalmouth area.

Outerbridge would eventually return to make the breakthrough in spectacular fashion.

The forward controlled a short pass from Chae Brangman before curling the ball into the top right corner from 20-yards.

The goal jolted X- Roads into action with Lottimore having a shot saved and a dangerous cross plucked by Hood goalkeeper Mateo Holder.

The hosts’s pressure finally told when Donovan Thompson slotted home at the back post after Holder spilt Darin Scott-Woolridge’s free-kick to send the two teams into the dressing room at the break on level terms.

Hood regained the lead shortly after the interval when Shannon Burchall beat X- Roads goalkeeper Q-Shai Darrell with a low drive from a partial clearance.

It proved to be Burchall’s last act as he was immediately replaced by Tajai Goater.

X -Roads pressed on for another equaliser and were eventually rewarded thanks to Lottimore’s looping header at the near post from Scott-Woolridge’s free-kick.

The hosts went close again with full-back Scott Woolridge blazing just over from distance.

Mussenden finally settled the cagey affair right at the death, after latching onto Aaron Nelson’s short pass inside the area and firing home.

SCORERS

X- Roads: Thompson 14, Lottimore 85

Robin Hood: Outerbridge 9, Burchall 49, Mussenden (sub) 90+2

TEAMS

X-Roads (4-2-3-1): Q Darrell 7 – R Beek 7, J Furbert 7, D Scott-Woolridge 8, R Hare 7 – T Daniels 7, J Costa 6 (sub: D Simons, 77min) – T Perinchief 6 (sub: Z McCarter, 61 6), A Burgess 7, J Lottimore 8 – D Thompson 8. Substitutes not used: J Minks, N Johnston, A Case, T Brangman, J Morgan. Booked: Thompson.

Robin Hood (4-2-3-1): M Holder 7 – D Cook 7, D Leverock 8, C Robinson 7, K Knights 7 – J Bather 6, K Naylor 7 – E Outerbridge 7, S Burchall 7 (Sub: T Goater, 46min 8), A Nelson 7 – C Brangman 6 (sub: A Mussenden, 49 7). Substitutes not used: M Fullerton, N Outerbridge, A Simons, T Bean

Referee: M Wyer.