North Village 0 PHC Zebras 1

North Village coach Kenny Thompson was left frustrated with the officials after his side narrowly lost a top-of-the-table clash to league leaders PHC Zebras at Bernard Park yesterday.

Village were a denied a confident appeal for a penalty and also had a promising goalscoring opportunity controversially flagged offside from a throw-in, much to Thompson’s dismay.

“Two big calls went against us, especially the one where Jaizel [Smith-DeShields] is behind the defence from a throw-in and was called offside,” Thompson said.

“From what I understand about the penalty, the officials were saying the ball came off the defender’s [Darren Usher] foot on to his hand. We’ve just been on the wrong side of some big decisions in the last two games against PHC and those situations make or break a game.

“But at the end of the day we didn’t play well enough outside of those moments to deserve to win.”

Village’s woes were further compounded when midfielder and former PHC player Tre Ming was sent off after picking up a second booking in a tight encounter that failed to live up to the pre-match hype.

It was left to Marco Warren, the PHC captain, to score the winner from the penalty spot early in the first half in the fourth meeting between the sides this season settled by a 1-0 scoreline.

The result stretched PHC’s lead at the top of the standings to two points ahead of second- placed St George’s Colts.

“The win doesn’t really give you that much relief, but we will take it,” Winston Trott Jr, the PHC coach, said.

“Our goal is to win the league, so if that’s what you want to do, you have to win and there is definitely a lot of work to do.

“It was scrappy, as I thought it was going to be, and I don’t think we played up to the standard that we can and we didn’t put away the many chances we had, but the most important thing is we got our three points and we will take it and run with it.”

PHC took the lead in the fifteenth minute with the first opportunity either side could muster when they were awarded a penalty as Ming handled Warren’s free kick while standing in the wall.

Warren made no mistake from 12 yards as he sent Detre Bell the wrong way after picking the bottom-left corner.

Village went close to equalising when Coleridge Fubler tipped Jalen Harvey’s 25-yard effort on to the bar before Bell was also equal to the task at the other end when he pulled off a diving save to deny Jalun Hassell’s shot from point-blank range right on the half-time whistle.

PHC dodged a bullet at the start of the second period when Usher appeared to handle in the area but went unpunished by the officials and tempers in the Village camp reached boiling point when striker Smith-DeShields raced clear on goal but was flagged offside.

Bell pulled off a string of saves to deny Warren, Kadeem Abraham and Paul Simons, while right back Anijhae Dos Santos timed his tackle in the box well to dispossess T’ysi Showers as he shaped to shoot.

Village’s chances of a comeback suffered a hammer blow when Ming was sent for an early shower in the 78th minute after receiving a second booking for arguing with the referee.

PHC tried to capitalise on their numerical advantage but Bell pulled off a series of saves to thwart Warren, Jaylon Bather and Na-eem Griffith near the end.

SCORERS

PHC: Warren, 15 (pen)

TEAMS

North Village (4-1-4-1): D Bell 8 – J Harvey 7, T Fray 6, K Knights 6, A Dos Santos 7 – V Perinchief 6 (sub: S Somner, 75min 5)- K Harrison 6, T Ming 6, N Smith 6 (sub: P Smith, 70 5), T Williams 6 – J Smith-DeShields 6. Substitutes not used: I Simmons, O DeShields, N Anglin, A O’Loughlin, D Dillas. Booked: Ming, Perinchief. Sent off: Ming.

PHC (4-1-4-1): C Fubler 7 – D Smith-Lightbourne 7 – J Bather 7, N Griffith 7, D Usher 7- D Lodge 7 (sub: D Dowling, 90+2)- K Abraham 7, J Hassell 6 (sub: J Sealey, 67 6), M Warren 8, T Showers 7 (sub: K Bean, 67 7) – P Simons 6. Substitutes not used: Shaquille Trott, K Matthie, Shakhai Trott, A McDowall. Booked: Hassell.

Referee: T Bassue (St Kitts).