X-Roads 1 St George’s 2

St. George’s Colts scored a goal in each half and then had to hold off a late surge by a stubborn X-Roads to pick up their first Premier Division points of the season.

Goals from Callon Burns and Manoj Paynter secured the result for St George’s, who had been forced to play extra time in their Dudley Eve Trophy quarter-final against North Village on Thursday night.

“We deserved to win,”, said St. George’s assistant coach Calvin Dill Jr.

“Our legs are tired as we played 120 minutes on Thursday night against North Village but we fought through the pain to come out with the three points. X-Roads caught us as our legs were a bit heavy and forced us to bring on guys to tighten up our defence.”

The game started evenly for the first fifteen minutes before the Warriors’ seasoned striker Donovan Thompson sighted St George’s goalkeeper Jahquil Hill off his line and produced a delicate chip that had Hill scrambling backwards to jump and collect the ball from just under the crossbar.

Just two minutes later St George’s took the lead after good build-up play from the left side of their midfield as a defence-splitting pass found striker Callon Burns, who controlled, turned and fired a thunderous shot into the roof of the net despite the diving effort of X-Roads goalkeeper Q’Shai Darrell.

Hill had to be at his best to pull of a reflex save when Thompson, a menace to defenders throughout, turned his marker to get off a snap-shot.

Substitute Jelani Carlington should have put St George’s two up before half-time but he miskicked a Manoj Paynter cross from a yard out.

X-Roads had the first scoring opportunity after the break when a defensive error put Jamin Lottimore through, but in his excitement,he drilled a pass into Thompson who could not untangle his feet in an attempt to slot the ball home.

St George’s doubled their lead in the last quarter of the match after a mental lapse from the X-Roads defence.

A long throw-in from Jarazinho Bassett found Paynter unmarked in the centre just outside the box and he had the easy task of dribbling at goal before drilling a hard and low shot through Darrell’s legs.

With time running out, the Warriors refused to give in and started pumping long balls up the middle to their attacking unit and they got late reward when Thompson pulled a goal back after holding off his marker and hithing a low drive which nestled in the bottom corner beyond Hill’s outstretched arm.

X-Roads continued to apply pressure and nearly scored a deserved equaliser when St George’s centre-half Ernest Signor misdirected a diagonal cross over his own goalkeeper’s head but the ball bounced inches over the woodwork in the final attack of the game.

Scorers

X-Roads: Thompson 82

St George’s: Burns 18, Paynter 80

TEAMS

X-Roads (4-1-4-1}: Q Darrell 6 - O Williams 6, Daniel Teleman 6, J Smith 5, A Cajee 5 - A Gill 5 - J Lottimore 6, A Spencer 6, D Thompson 7, K Richardson 5 (sub: C Araujo, 69min, 5) - A Wilson 5. Substitutions not used: A Matthews, T Whited, L Hewey-Darrell, E Mensah, R Beek.

St. George’s (4-4-2): J Hill 6 - A Cannonier 5, P Anderson 6 (sub: A Simons, 76), E Signor 6, J Bassett 6 - C Neal 6 (sub: J Carlington, 41 5), K Minors 6, M Paynter 6, J Salaam 6 - C Burns 7 (sub: D Lodge, 76) R King 5 (sub: A Heyliger, 36 5; sub: W White, 76). Booked: M Paynter, J Hill.

Referee: A Francis