Paget Lions 4 St David’s 0

Young winger Diaje Hart netted twice as Paget made it into the Shield final with a dominant victory over St David’s Warriors at Bernard Park yesterday.

The West End side took control early in the game with Zaire Weller pulling the strings and they took the lead in the 14th minute when Kyjah Simons played a ball down the line to Hart, who squared for Dion Stovell. He combined with fellow attacker and skipper Antwan Russell before the former Southampton Rangers striker opened up his body to finish past Shomori Fox.

The promotion hopefuls quickly doubled their lead, with defender Julian Carpenter clipping forward to Stovell who played it to Hart in space and he cut inside to fire past Fox.

The East End club would slowly try to get back into the game but Marcus Proctor could not beat Chiquon Smith after being played through by Diego McCallan.

Lions added to their advantage in first-half stoppage time when Hart picked out Russell in space and the attacker found Stovell, who took a touch into the penalty area before being bundled over by Jamere Jervis. Russell stepped up and curled the resulting penalty beyond the outstretched arms of Fox to give Paget a dominant advantage.

Warriors started the second half off with renewed vigour after a very poor opening 45 minutes and they created a strong opportunity to get back into the game but Jamori Jones-Tyrell fired straight at Smith.

They held the better of the action for at least ten minutes, creating a few half-chances, but kept faltering on the final pass or misfiring in the shot with their most notable opening coming just before the hour when Cody Richardson fed Tre McCallan, but the winger had his effort blocked by Patraic Castle.

Paget put the game out of St David’s reach midway through the second half when Hart took advantage of a slip by Fox, taking the ball around the St David’s goalkeeper and tapping into the empty net.

Thereafter, Paget threatened to compound their opponents’ misery but substitute Wahhaj Shakir had a powerful effort punched over the bar by Fox. Shakir Smith also nearly found the net but took too many touches and lost balance when striking at goal.

Paget player-coach Russell was pleased with his team’s application.

“We stuck to the gameplan,” Russell said. “Everything we worked on in training, they implemented on the pitch. We can win the competition. We have a chance, if we play our best.”

Scorers

Paget Lions: Stovell 14; Hart 17, 67; Russell 45+4 pen

TEAMS

Paget (4-2-3-1): C Smith 6 – K Simons 6 (sub: A Lee, 71min), J Carpenter 6, R DeShields 6, S Smith 6 – P Castle 7, Z Weller 6 – K Hypolite 6 (sub: M Wade, 76), A Russell 7 (sub: J Stovel, 84), D Hart 7 (sub: K Durrant, 84) – D Stovell (sub: W Shakir, 76) Substitutes not used: J Richardson, O Tucker. Booked: Russell, Lee.

St David’s (4-5-1): S Fox 6 – A Simons 5, D Laws 5, C Lugo-Elibox 5, M Proctor 6 – C Richardson 5, D McCallan 6 (sub: B Furquan, 84), J Jervis 5 (sub: D Minors, 84), Ari Cannonier 6, T McCallan 5 – J Jones-Tyrell (sub: I Smith, 87). Substitutes not used: O Bascome, T Burgess, K Butterfield, Ayr Cannonier. Booked: Jones-Tyrell, T McCallan.

Referee: T Adams