PHC 0 North Village 1

North Village booked their place in the semi-finals of the Dudley Eve Trophy after edging nine-man PHC in a fiery encounter at Devonshire Rec last night.

After a goalless first half, the match was well and truly ignited as PHC were reduced to nine men in the first four minutes after the restart, with Kadeem Abraham and Darren Usher both receiving straight red cards for lunging tackles.

To compound matters, former PHC midfielder Tre Ming struck what proved to be the winner in the 55th minute as North Village did enough to seal progression, despite a valiant effort of the depleted opposition.

“I’ll get myself in trouble if I say what I really want to,” said PHC coach Winston Trott Jr, who praised the effort of his team after the dismissals. “The referee killed the game.

“After that it was just a matter of trying to play with what we had but we never gave up.

“You can’t control some of the decisions in the game but you have to keep working and that’s exactly what we did.

“Even with two men off the field I felt at times we were still the better side and so that’s credit to the players. All we can do now is regroup and be ready for the next game.”

It was North Village who created the first clear opportunity after ten minutes Justin Bell burst down the left-hand side before feeding Nacori Smith, whose left-foot shot was somehow diverted round the far post by goalkeeper Coleridge Fubler.

PHC began to enjoy a foothold in the game with Marco Warren dragging a shot wide of the post when well placed in the 18th minute, before T’ysi Showers fired over from the edge of the area five minutes later.

Moments later Village came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock as a quick free kick over the PHC defence released Ming into the area, who beat the onrushing Fubler with a lobbed effort but the retreating Usher, who acrobatically hooked the ball off the line.

At the other end, Paul Simons spurned a good opportunity to open the scoring, lashing a right-footed effort over the bar after a smart exchange of passes with Warren.

In the closing stages of the half, Ming again went close to putting his side in front, as he beat defender Na’eem Griffith to a through ball, but could only watch on as his prodded effort beat Fubler but rolled just wide of the goal.

Just two minutes into the second half, PHC were dealt a major blow as referee Anthony Francis had no hesitation in giving Abraham his marching orders for a lunging challenge.

Things went from bad to worse for PHC two minutes later as they were reduced to nine men with Usher also being shown a straight red card for a firm challenge on Jalen Harvey.

With the numerical advantage, Village capitalised as Ming broke the deadlock in the 54th minute, acrobatically firing past Fubler after racing on to a lobbed pass from Justin Bell over the defence.

To their credit PHC continued to look a threat, with Warren calling Detre Bell into action to palm away his curling free kick from the edge of the area on the half-hour mark.

At the other end, Village came close to doubling their advantage as goalkeeper Fubler saved at the feet of Nacori Smith, with Diondre Dowling blocking the rebound from Seth Somner.

In closing stages PHC created one final chance to force extra time but Jaylon Bather could only fire over under pressure, as Village held on to seal their place in the next round.

“We didn’t manage the game well enough after they had two men sent off,” admitted Village coach Kenny Thompson. “We definitely made it more difficult than it should have been.

“We knew PHC would continue to fight and so we needed to take the sting out of the game a bit better, which we did for short periods but not consistently enough.

“North Village and PHC has long been a rivalry, a good one over the years and for sure we knew they would want to get us back for beating them in the opening match of the season [Premier Division]. We knew they might have been wounded from Friday and were going to come with a little bit of extra intensity.

“In a knockout competition all you can do is get to the next round and we did what we needed to do to get through to the semi-finals.”

SCORER

North Village: Ming 54

TEAMS

PHC (4-2-3-1): C Fubler 7 – D Usher 5, N Griffith 7 (sub: D Dowling, 65min 6), J Bather 7, J Hassell 6 – D Lodge 6 (sub: D Joell, 85), K Abraham 5 – M Warren 7, K Bean 6, T Showers 6 (sub: S Nisbett, 65 6) – P Simons 6. Substitutes not used: W Trott, K Lewis, M Lambe. Booked: Hassell, Griffith. Sent off: Abraham, Usher.

North Village (4-3-3): D Bell 7 – S Lambert 6 (sub: A Dos Santos, 85), K Knights 7, J Harvey 7, T Bean 6 – T Ming 8, T Wilson 7, T Williams 6 (sub: S Somner, 66 6) – J Smith-DeShields 7, J Bell 6 (sub: V Perinchief, 85), N Smith 7 (sub: P Smith, 88). Substitutes not used: O DeShields, K Harrison. Booked: Smith, Ming, J Bell, D Bell.

Referee: A Francis.