Boulevard 1 Somerset Trojans 1

Somerset Trojans confirmed ongoing membership among the Premier Division, while Boulevard were relegated after the two clubs battled to a 1-1 draw at Goose Gosling Field on Sunday.

Trojans’ captain Simeon Burrows's second-half goal cancelled out an earlier Jahzardae Samuels strike for the home team to secure the result the west enders needed while banishing Blazers to the lower tier.

“I think that the team we have should have never been fighting for this in the first place,” said Burrows at the game’s conclusion.

“We have a good group of talented young guys, which we should be able to better demonstrate next season. When they went ahead, it was up to me to make sure that we all kept our heads in the game, because it was only a few minutes into the second half that they went ahead, so there was a lot of time for us still.

“With the pace of the game and how things were flowing, I always thought I could step up in some way to get us a goal, whether it was by an assist or scoring. The chance came and I was able to take it.”

Before Burrows’s heroics, his counterpart Samuels had laid down a marker in respect of his own club in the 49th minute when he finished off a well-constructed attack.

A pass from Sergio Woolridge found Clay Darrell midway on the goal-line to the right of the Somerset goal and, despite close attention from centre-back Jaz Ratteray-Smith, the forward was able to nutmeg the defender and pass into the path of Samuels, who crashed the ball past a hopelessly-exposed Jade Morrissey.

The clear intent of Blazers was to defend the scoreline but with a tiring line-up on the pitch and a reluctance to use the two available bench players who were not defensive, and with their opponents increasingly showing signs of greater attacking cohesion, it was only a matter of time before the flaws in the plan were revealed and the dam burst.

And so it happened in the 72nd minute that Trojans crashed through the opening, with Burrows finishing a fine move started by Jadan Ratteray-Smith..

The lithe midfielder took on Boulevard’s left-back with success, turning the defender inside out on the right, before crossing into the area for Justin Corday to apply a delicate glancing flick on to Burrows, who struck a full-blooded drive, which took a slight deflection and eluded Azir Harvey.

Now with their backs against the wall Boulevard surged forward, forcing several saves out of Morrissey, with Darrell the most unfortunate not to score, as his piledriver from ten yards was well parried away by the goalkeeper. Further shots on target by Kamali Davis and Takeyhi Walker were likewise collected by Morrissey, who appeared vastly improved from earlier in the season when his struggles to hold on to balls cost him his place in the line-up.

“We came here looking for a favourable result and we got it and now we’re safe for another season,” said Jensen Rogers, Somerset’s interim head coach.

“We made it a lot harder than it should have been, but that’s all due to Boulevard’s goalkeeper, who made a lot of saves in the first half that served to deny us.”

To their credit, Blazers fought hard to the final whistle and were gracious in defeat, with team manager Troy Smith accepting the result while pointing to their relegation as an opportunity to rebuild.

“That’s how it goes sometime, it’s football,” said Smith, who like Rogers has been forced to take on head coaching duties for a large portion of the second half of the season.

“The good thing about it is that we played hard and showed that we can still play. We’ve shown that in the last three games, all of which we were ahead and could have won.

“We were ahead two goals over Dandy Town. We went up against North Village and then we went ahead again today, but just couldn’t finish the job, so it’s just a bit unfortunate, but we will go and do what we need to do to build up Boulevard again.”

SCORERS

Boulevard: Samuels 49.

Somerset: Burrows 72.

TEAMS

Boulevard (4-3-3): A Harvey 7 - A Johnston 6, A Williams- Smith 6, R Trott 6, O Wilson 6 - T Walker 6, J Samuels 7, A Famour 6 - S Woolridge 6, K Davis 6, C Darrell 6. Substitutes not used: Z Stovell, K Easton. Booked: Davis, Darrell.

Somerset Trojans (4-4-2): J Morrissey 7 – D Ming 6 (sub: R Burrows, 85), T Ming 6, Jaz Ratteray-Smith 6, M Nisbett-Tankard 6 – Jaden Ratteray-Smith 7, J Butterfield 6, C Durham (sub: J Shields, 56 6) S Burrows 7, J Iris 6 – J Corday 6, Z Saltus-Seymour 6 (sub: D Swan-Desilva, 56 6). Substitutes not used: M Wilson, A Morrissey, R Burrows. Booked: Ming.

Referee: D Jackson