St George’s 0 Dandy Town 3

Dandy Town moved closer to a ninth Premier Division title and first since the 2015-16 season when they left Wellington Oval with three more points from their sixteenth win in 18 matches.

The result keeps them two points ahead of PHC with two matches remaining, with Town set to play Devonshire Colts on Saturday while their nearest rivals meet North Village before the two teams meet the following Saturday night to decide the title.

Eusebio Blankendal, who is wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Angelo Simmons, played a significant role in Town’s victory, setting up the second goal before scoring the third himself early in the second half as the visitors reached the 50-goal mark in the league.

It took them a while to break down a stubborn St George’s side who fought hard to make things difficult. But once the deadlock was broken in the 29th minute, Town quickly made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later.

A ball over the defence by Cecoy Robinson caught the St George’s defence flat as Kamali Davis ran through the middle and beat the advancing Freddy Hall to the ball before extending a boot and steering it past the goalkeeper with his first touch.

An overlap produced another good finish for Town, with Blankendal getting through down the right side before crossing into the box where Tomiko Goater beat Hall from close range.

“Most importantly the team won, it was a team effort,” Blankendal said. “Overall we had control of the game.

“We were able to understand our strengths and their weaknesses and that’s what helped us to manage the game better than the last game that we played.

“For the first 29 minutes, we were playing too narrow and once we started going to the wide players they started to open up and we were able to pick pockets in the end and that’s how we were able to get the goals.”

Blankendal added to the tally in the 53rd minute when he blasted home from the right side of the penalty box after St George’s failed to deal with another Town threat.

At the other end, full back Nzari Paynter went close to scoring for the home team when his shot from the edge of the penalty was kept out by goalkeeper Jaiden Manders diving to his left.

St George’s substitute Jahkai Brangman had a good chance to prevent the shut-out in the dying minutes when Lashon Dill, in a one-on-one chance, squared the ball to Brangman who miskicked with the goal at his mercy.

Macai Simmons, of St George’s, was dismissed just seconds before the final whistle when he was shown a second yellow by referee Anthony Francis for a bad foul on Jhazii Johnson, having been already been booked in the first half.

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Davis 29, Goater 31, Blankendal 53

TEAMS

St George’s (4-3-3): F Hall 6 – A Francis 6, P Anderson 6, E Signor 6, N Paynter 6 – C Ottley 6 (sub: C King 83min), J Carlington 6 (sub: J Darrell, 68 6), M Simmons 6 – S Blair-Paynter 6 (sub: Brangman 83), L Dill 6, K Ottley 5 (sub: J Dickinson, 50 6). Substitutes not used: C Burns, L Wales. Booked: Blair-Paynter, Simmons, Carlington. Sent off: Simmons.

Dandy Town (4-3-3): J Manders 6 – E Blankendal 7, T Webb 7, T Manders 7, J Bean-Lindo 7 – A Furbert 7, N Spence 7 (sub: M Parsons, 75), E Swan 6 (sub: J Johnson 68, 6) – C Robinson 6 (sub: M Mello-Cann, 83), K Davis 6 (sub: S Tatem, 83) T Goater 6 (sub: J Samuels, 75). Substitutes not used: J Roser, S Darrell. Booked: T Manders.

Referee: A Francis