Hamilton Parish 3 Paget 2

A brace by Delray Rawlins was not enough for Paget, who slumped to their second defeat in the Premier Division at Wellington Oval on Sunday.

The Bermuda cricket captain struck in each half for Paget to take his goal tally for the season to five but it was Parish who walked away with the thee points thanks to two goals from Kion Knights and a goal from Leroy Lewis.

It was the second win of the season for Sergio Goater’s side, and this has lifted them to eight points. Paget on the other hand remain on 12 points.

Goater believes that with a few teams in the league, who believes his side have an outside chance of challenging North Village for the title.

“It’s good to win but it’s still a work in progress,’’ Goater said.

“With a ten-team league you can go from last to pretty much in the hunt. Village are winning all their games but we’re pretty much in the hunt. We’re in the mix now and we’ll try to win our next two games and see where we end up before Christmas.

“We faced a lot of long balls and ried to play passing football, which we did, but we had to defend. Delray Rawlins is a good player for that type of game, but I feel we handled it well.

“The numbers have been good in training and consistency will bring the rewards. Our target is to have a good stay in this league. We’re not in this league just to be in it. We want to win some silverware and be considered a big club.”

Paget coach Antwan Russell walked away disappointed after he felt his side had done enough to at least earn a share of the points.

“It wasn't one of our best performances but I felt we had done enough to get something out of the game,’’ Russell said.

“It’s a little immaturity on my team and myself as well. I know sometimes the game gets away from guys but it’s my job to keep them calm and I don’t feel like I did that.

“We just have to keep on training and doing the correct things to do what got us this far. One game won’t make us a bad team, we know that. All we have to do is keep going.”

Parish dominated the early exchanges and Knights could have opened the scoring in the 13th minute after a delightful pass from Macquille Walker.

Nigel Burgess, the Parish goalkeeper was called into action in the 14th minute to twice deny Paget a goal when he blocked efforts from Rawlins and Diaje Hart, before Knights opened the scoring for Parish in the 18th minute.

The scores were level going into the break after Rawlins equalised in the 27th minute when he received a long clearance from the back, controlled the ball well and buried it past Burgess.

Omari DeShields, the Paget keeper, then had to be at his best to keep out an effort from Samario Velasse-Paul just after the hour mark.

Rawlins put Paget in the lead in the 65th minute with a well-executed free-kick from outside the box after Burgess who could only push it into the roof of the net.

Parish captain Mauriq Hill played a part in their equaliser when his cross from the right was headed in by Lewis in the 68th minute and just a minute later they were ahead after Knights pounced on a rebound when DeShields failed to handle a shot from Lewis.

SCORERS

Hamilton Parish: Knights 18, 69, Lewis 68

Paget: Rawlins, 27, 65

TEAMS

Hamilton Parish (4-2-3-1): N Burgess 7 – K Wade 6, M Hill 7, M Turner 6, J Bean 6 – Z Burgess, S Valasse-Paul 7 (sub: S McKittrick 73) – J Bell 7, Lewis 7, Knights 8 – M Walker 7. Substitutes not used: J Stowe, C Lindo, J Steede

Paget: (4-3-3): O DeShields 6 – A Russell 5, R DeShields 5, S Smith 5, K Simons 5 – Joell 6 (sub: D Swan 88), Weller 6 (sub: O Tucker 78), K Hypolite 5 (sub: A Grant 78) – Rawlins 8, S Mitchell 5 (sub: K Davis 60 5), D Hart 6. Substitutes not used: K Durrant, S Lambert, J White.

Referee: A Francis.