Paget 3 Young Men’s Social Club 0

Paget comfortably beat fellow promoted side Young Men’s Social Club to advance to the Dudley Eve quarter-finals on Sunday night.

Two goals from Omari Tucker and a strike from Aquino Grant gave Paget the win with coach Antwan Russell pleased with his side’s performance.

“We wanted to progress in this cup competition,” Russell said.

“The clean sheet is equally important and huge for the team’s confidence. We executed the game plan with little difficulty and it is nice to see the fruits of our labour coming through in matches.”

Despite having plenty of the ball in the first half hour, Paget failed to progress the ball into dangerous positions or create anything of note with Social Club looking dangerous on the counter-attack when stand-in captain David Jones Jr fed Jinairo Johnston before his effort was blocked by Rakeem Deshields.

However, it was Paget who made the all-important breakthrough on the half-hour mark with Zaire Weller executing a floated pass to Kamali Davis, who found Omari Tucker in space on the right before he took one touch and smashed a half-volley into the roof of the net past a motionless Ryan Evans.

Despite leadng at the interval, Paget forward Shakir Smith was replaced by Kushae Hypolite at half-time after expressing his disgust at his Paget team-mates for not getting the ball to him enough. Head coach Russell later declined to comment on the incident.

Social Club had their chances to get back into the game early in the second half when Johnston stole the ball just inside the Paget half and played a neat one-two with Kimshun Smith, but the attacking midfielder misjudged the weight of his through pass.

Paget found their second goal just after the hour mark when midfield playmaker Diaje Hart took a corner from the left and Tucker backheeled the ball into the near post under goalkeeper Evans to give the 2022 First Division champions the cushion they needed.

Social Club made a tactical switch with 20 remaining, replacing fullback Ja-Kida Richardson with forward Shannon Jennings and going more direct as a result, but they failed to find a route back into the match.

Paget finally put the game beyond Social Club’s grasp in the 74th minute when Aquino Grant fired a volley along the ground into the near post with his first touch after coming on five minutes earlier.

They could have scored again in the final minutes as they tried to push for a consolation, but Hart could not capitalise on a foul won by Grant as he whipped the free-kick over the bar from just outside the penalty area.

Scorers

Paget Lions: O Tucker 32, 63; Grant 74

TEAMS

Paget (4-2-3-1): T Hall 6 – K Durrant 6, R Deshields 8, J Carpenter 7, T White 6 – D Joell 6, Z Weller 6 (sub: A Grant, 68min 5) – K Davis 6 (sub: P Castle, 68 5), D Hart 7 (sub: Z Tucker, 86), S Smith 4 (sub: K Hypolite, 46 5) – O Tucker 7 (sub: M Wade, 81). Booked: Weller

Social Club (4-2-3-1): R Evans 4 – J Richardson 6 (sub: S Jennings, 69 5), C Woolridge 5 (sub: Keshun Butterfield, 85), K Rawlings 5, T Butterfield 5 – D Jones Jr 6, M Wilson 5 (sub: R Parris, 73) – K Smith 5, J Johnston 5, B Swan 5 – J Mallory 5. Substitutes not used: E Lewis, M Williams – Booked: Johnston

Referee: A Francis