Paget Lions 2 Hamilton Parish 2

Ten-man Hamilton Parish showed character to rally and earn a share of the spoils with Paget Lions in a feisty mid-table encounter at Southampton Oval.

Parish started quickly, knocking the ball around confidently under pressure and opened the scoring inside five minutes from a set-piece. Captain Mauriq Hill timed his run to perfection, powering a header from Justin Bell’s corner past Paget goalkeeper Omari Deshields.

Paget were stunned by their opponents’ quick start but slowly found their groove, with the midfield duo of Rakeem Deshields and Diaje Hart running the show as they gathered control of the tempo. Despite that improvement Macquille Walker should have doubled Parish’s lead midway through the half but failed to test Deshields after the striker was picked out by winger Leroy Lewis.

Paget made the visiting side pay for that miss with an equalizer twelve minutes from half-time. Omari Tucker picked out a good ball wide to Ryan Lopes, who cut inside Jarye Bean before being taken down by Kion Knights just inside the penalty area. Hart stepped up and calmly tucked the spot-kick inside the far post past goalkeeper Chiquon Smith.

That goal prompted a good response by Parish and they continued to create opportunities through chief maestros Bell and Lewis, who had a chance just before the break but blazed over.

Paget player-coach Antwan Russell was sent off just before half-time for using foul language toward referee Tashun Simons amid a very physical and fiery encounter that was yet to hit boiling point.

Lions were also forced into an injury substitution at the interval, with Shentoine Lambert coming off to be replaced by Koshun Durrant and regular shot-stopper Nigel Burgess immediately showing his quality after replacing Smith, making an excellent save from Mitchell and pushing a decent strike by Hart around the post.

Parish midfielder Aaron Nelson was sent off midway through the second half for a heavy challenge on Senoj Mitchell just inside his attacking half, with the visitors forced to play the final 25 minutes a man light.

Winger Knights was replaced by midfielder Samuel McKittrick to restore numerical parity in the middle of the park before Delray Rawlins, brought on to add a different dimension to the Paget attack, put side ahead for the first time after Kamali Davis drove to the left byline and clipped a beautiful pass towards the penalty spot, where the Bermuda cricket captain blasted home from close range.

Their lead would last just two minutes with Hill scoring his second equaliser of the match and despite an open final ten minutes, no side was able to come up with a winner.

Parish head coach Sergio Goater was disappointed with their missed opportunities. “We had enough chances to win this game,” he said.

“The composure cost us until we lost the man, but we came back and equalised. That shows character.”

SCORERS

Paget Lions: Hart 33 pen, Rawlins 75

Hamilton Parish: M Hill 4, 77

TEAMS

Paget Lions (4-2-3-1): O Deshields 6 – S Smith 5, J Carpenter 6, J Stovel 5, S Lambert 7 (sub: K Durrant, 46min 5) – R DeShields 6, S Mitchell 5 (sub: P Castle, 78) – A Grant 5 (sub: K Davis, 57 5), D Hart 6, R Lopes 6 (sub: T Davis, 66 5) – O Tucker 4 (sub: D Rawlins, 57 6). Substitutes not used: J Tucker, D Joell, A Russell. Booked: R Deshields; Sent off: A Russell (coach).

Hamilton Parish (4-2-3-1): C Smith 5 (sub: N Burgess, 46 6) – J Bean 5 (sub: K Trott, 90), M Turner 5, Q Outerbridge 6, K Knights 5 (sub: S McKittrick, 74) – A Nelson 4, M Hill 6 – S Valasse-Paul 6, J Bell 6, L Lewis 5 – M Walker 5. Substitutes not used: A Foy. Booked: Valasse-Paul, Bean, Turner. Sent off: Nelson.

Referee: T Simons