North Village 8 St David’s 2

A second-half goal blitz, including four from Keishen Bean, gave North Village a comfortable 8-2 win against St. David’s at Bernard Park yesterday.

Village held a 2-0 lead at half-time, but St. David’s managed to briefly draw level after the break thanks to a goal from Justin Pitcher and a penalty from James Pace. However, Village then went on to score six more goals to squash any hopes of an upset.

After a slow start by both teams, Village broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute. Village were awarded a free-kick just inside the area and Keishen Bean stepped up and bent his effort around the wall so that it nestled just inside the post to put his side in the lead.

It would only take three more minutes before the second goal. Village forwards Lashon Dill and Pierre Smith were both applying pressure and they ultimately forced an error out of the St David’s defence and Dill was on hand to calmly steer the ball home.

Right at the start of the second half, the game was held up for a few minutes after an accidental clash of heads involving Village’s Demetre Daniels and Jarreau Daniels, of St David’s.

St David’s had brought on forward Justin Pitcher at half-time, and he immediately began to make an impact on the game. In the 53rd minute, Pitcher got on the end of a cross from James Pace and buried his effort.

Fourteen minutes later, Pitcher was involved in a passage of play that led to St David’s being awarded a penalty. Pace stepped up and converted to draw his side level.

Suddenly, St David’s were dreaming of a claiming a famous win. However, they had just barely finished celebrating Pace’s goal, when Village struck back. In the 69th minute, a simple long ball over the top caught out the defence and Dill raced on to it and steered the ball hard and low into the net to put the home side back in front.

St David’s almost hit back again though, but Detre Bell, the Village goalkeeper saved Daniels’s point-blank shot.

Village would soon make St. David’s pay for that missed opportunity, with Shayne Hollis scoring their fourth goal after some hesitant play in the goalmouth by the defence.

Pierre Smith then struck the inside of the post from two yards out after connecting with a cross from Dill, before Hollis and hit the exact same spot from the same situation just seconds later.

The next chance of the match would fall to Bean and he would make sure there would be no more funny business. After a breakaway, Bean found himself in on goal and he fired off a shot that George O’Brien, the St David’s goalkeeper, could only manage to parry. Bean then quickly followed up and put his own rebound away to stretch Village’s lead to 5-2 and to finally put paid to their challenge.

Although the game was pretty much settled at 5-2, Village would still go on to score three more times in the last five minutes to add further gloss to the scoreline.

In the 86th minute, Pierre Smith would score his side’s sixth goal from close range after a mistake from O’Brien. Then, Bean would score his side’s final two goals in two minutes — a brilliant half-volley then a simple tap-in.

North Village (4-3-3): D Bell – D Tankard, Q Outerbridge (sub: K Knights, 80min) T Fray, A Furbert – D Daniels (sub: M Thomas, 77), K Bean, J Briers – P Smith, S Hollis (sub: C Caisey, 77), L Dill. Substitutes not used: D Dillas, A Johnston, J Thomas.

St David’s (4-3-3): G O’Brien – K Wade, D Butterfield (sub: S Swan, 85), L Bennett, W Ming – J Daniels, D Hendrickson (sub: M Proctor, 65), K Smith – J Pace, K Hurdle (sub: J Pitcher, 45), N Anderson. Substitutes not used: I Creighton, D Fishenden, W Jones, J Usher. Booked: Wade, Ming.

Referee: M Wyer.