PHC captain Marco Warren has warned his side cannot afford to allow the two-point gap between themselves and Premier Division leaders Dandy Town to widen before the two teams meet in the final league match of the season.

The Zebras were impressive in their 11-1 destruction of X-Roads, with their fast-moving, attacking play producing equally impressive finishing as Antwan and Enrique Russell both netted hat-tricks.

Their earlier meeting this season saw PHC edge X-Roads 3-2 at Garrison Field back in November, but Wednesday’s encounter was a one-sided affair despite X-Roads taking the lead through an own goal by Kadeem Abraham on the half-hour mark.

“We hope to still be in the running, that’s why we’re taking everything as preparation, because we know as long as we stay professional that it is going to come down to that,” said Warren. “But we can’t be too eager, we’ve got to take one game at a time, continue to get results and keep up the momentum.

“We don’t want to put too much in our minds that we have to win, but we have to make sure, collectively, that we feel that we can’t lose.

“That’s the mindset that we’re taking into every game day.”

PHC scored five goals in a thrilling last 13 minutes of the first half to carry a 5-1 lead into the break.

The hunger for goals continued early in the second half with six more goals coming, including three in the first seven minutes as they quickly moved towards a second double-figures victory of the season.

“We knew coming into the game that we are the highest-scoring team in the league, but we have to make sure that we don’t worry who gets the chances as long as we put them away,” said Warren, who scored their equaliser just two minutes after his team had fallen behind.

The midfielder was a driving force throughout the contest and was involved in many of their attacking moves which kept the X-Roads defence busy with the goals coming at a steady rate.

“The main thing we focused on was making sure we played a good game,” Warren added.

“We’ve played many games in the season that we’ve won but haven’t been happy with our performance, so we wanted to mesh the two and I’m glad we did that tonight.”

The size of the victory would have sent a clear message to Town.

“We know Dandy Town are watching every game, so we have to make sure they have something to fear,” Warren said.

Dandy Town have to play North Village, Robin Hood, St George’s and Devonshire Colts in their next four matches, while PHC take on St George’s, Southampton Rangers, Somerset and Village before the possible title decider with the leaders on April 10 at Goose Gosling Field.