PHC 12 Southampton 0

(match conceded on 71 minutes)

PHC beat a makeshift Southampton Rangers team into submission before the Premier Division’s bottom team conceded the match after defender Ralston Wright went down with a head injury which stopped the game in the 70th minute.

Rangers struggled to field a team which resulted in a 20-minute delay and when Wright went down injured, coach Dwayne “Streaker” Adams informed referee Anthony Francis that they were conceding the match.

The result, which will stand, leaves Rangers at the bottom of the standings and one match away from relegation, which will happen this weekend if Devonshire Colts get a draw against X-Roads. Rangers have a bye on Sunday.

“We had a player who went down [injured] and we had no more subs, we had players who we asked to come out and make up the numbers,” Adams explained of the decision not to carry on.

“It just didn’t make sense trying to push on, these guys were tired and were cramping. We had four guys who have never even really played before, including one guy who just signed up and got his picture taken today.

“I’m thankful to the players who still came out and at least tried to make it a match, after we were considering not even playing the match at all. We asked the BFA for some time and they didn’t give it to us, so we just came and did what we had to do.”

The two sides met each other just a week ago with Rangers losing 2-0 in the Friendship Trophy quarter-final. This time it wasn’t even close as PHC romped to their third double figures victory in recent weeks following their 12-0 drubbing of Somerset Eagles on February 6 and their 11-1 win over X-Roads on March 9.

The match was over as a contest by the half-hour mark with PHC already leading 5-0 after running non-stop at their opponents. A through ball by Tre Ming put Marco Warren into the box for his captain to unselfishly choose the option of passing to Enrique Russell rather than try to beat goalkeeper Adams from just six yards.

Warren scored the second two minutes later when he blasted home from a similar position before Antwan Russell scored his first of four goals in the thirteenth minute when he turned inside the box and drove a left-footed shot inside the near post.

Enrique Russell added two goals as PHC also got single strikes from Keishon Bean and De-Andre Smith-Lightbourne to lead 8-0 at the half.

Bean went off injured in the 27th minute and was replaced by Jaheim Iris who also got on the scoresheet, scoring the first goal in the second half to make it 9-0.

PHC had the luxury of switching fullback Smith-Lightbourne with Enrique Russell on the left side in the first half in the hopes that he might help himself to a goal.

After Antwan Russell blasted the ball home into the roof of the net from near the edge of the box to make it 6-0 in the 29th minute, Smith-Lightbourne broke through down the left flank to score, which brought the biggest celebration of the night

However, the goal was ruled out for offside, but he wouldn’t be denied seven minutes later when he scored from a Marco Warren cross which found him at the far post. The celebration was the same as he ran towards the bench to share the moment with his team-mates.

The second half brought four more goals, with the strike from Iris followed by efforts from Rakeem DeShields, Antwan Russell and substitute Kadeem Abraham in the 59th, 62nd and 68th minutes.

“We wondered coming into the game if they were going to field players, but we wanted to be disciplined and made sure that we kept full steam ahead for the games coming,” said Warren who was substituted just before the game was stopped.

“We were going for a lot of goals and as we started putting chances away we wanted to make sure that guys got on the scoresheet. I came off as well, just to prevent injuries.”

SCORERS:

PHC: E Russell 8, 24; A Russell 13, 29, 45, 62; M Warren 10, K Bean 20, D Smith-Lightbourne 37, J Iris 52, R DeShields 59, K Abraham 68.

TEAMS

PHC (4-3-3): Shaquille Trott 6 – Shakhai Trott 6, N Griffith 6, R DeShields 6, D Smith-Lightbourne 7 – M Joell 6, M Warren 7 (sub: D Lodge 67min), T Ming 7 (sub: K Abraham 46, 6) – A Russell 7 (sub: K Hypolite 65), E Russell 7 (sub: D Usher, 57), K Bean 6 (sub: J Iris, 27, 6). Substitutes not used: C Durham, M Lambe.

Southampton (4-4-2): D Adams 5 (sub: S Perinchief 46 5) ‒ E Stoneham 5, R Knight 5, K Tucker 5 (sub: L Boyles, 65), M Basden 5 – R Lowe 6, K Wilson 6, S Perinchief 6, C Henry 6 – J Hollis 5, D Dunlop 5. Booked: Henry.

Referee: A Francis