BAA Wanderers 6

St David’s 0

BAA Wanderers gave St David’s Warriors six of the best as they breezed into the Shield semi-finals yesterday.

Morricko Iris and Marcus Ming both scored twice in the merciless thrashing of a Warriors side that never recovered from the loss of Kaylin Darrell, the goalkeeper, early in the second half.

Only one down at half-time, Darrell, who pulled a hamstring, had to be replaced in goal by Chris Douglas, the central defender, five minutes after the restart.

A controlling influence at the heart of the defence in the first half, Douglas was unable to exert the same control from the penalty area in the second, and BAA made St David’s pay a heavy price for his absence.

Iris, who put his side ahead on the stroke of half-time, added a second with little more than an hour gone, and then the floodgates opened. Ming, Troy Tucker, and Tyriko Williams all got in on the act as Warriors’ fragile discipline disappeared completely.

It was all too much for Jokai Fox, the midfielder, who was sent off for a petulant challenge that earned him his second yellow card of the game.

Things might have been altogether different if St David’s had been able to take advantage of the home side’s wastefulness in front of goal in the first half. But while the Warriors’ goalkeeping problems proved insurmountable, BAA had no such worries.

Poor upfront, Wanderers had Nathan Trott, their goalkeeper, to thank for keeping them in the game. Trott made a string of fine saves in the first half, denying Kurtis Minors and Jonathan Denbrook with point blank saves, and also diving to his right to tip away a Minors free-kick.

Iris made St David’s pay when he tapped in after a goal-mouth scramble, and his side continued to make them pay after.

“We were disappointed in the first half [performance],” Kenny Thompson, the Wanderers coach, said. “We scored right on half time which settled us a little bit, we really had the opportunities to do what we did in the first half and we nearly paid for it in the first half.

“They had two or three chances where our goalkeeper had to make two or three good saves, so, we spoke about it at half-time, it wasn’t good enough.

“We had a really difficult start to the season, now we’re playing with a lot of confidence, and we still have to improve in a lot of areas.”