Robin Hood 15 Social Club 0

Robin Hood condemned an already relegated Young Men’s Social to one of the biggest defeats in recent memory at Goose Gosling Field on Saturday night.

Hood, still chasing a second successive title, drastically improved their goal difference as they hope for PHC Zebras to slip up before the end of the season.

Four Antwan Russell goals helped Hood to an seven-goal lead before the interval, with Lejuan Simmons, the Hood captain, adding a brace and Shakir Smith also finding the net.

The goals continued after the break with Simmons completing his hat-trick, Chris Caisey curling in a free kick and Smith bagging his second with a close-range finish.

Social Club’s first season in the top flight for 37 years has not gone as they would have hoped. A paltry two points from 17 games tells its own story, and yet they refused to throw in the towel against Hood despite the game being virtually over after the first 15 minutes.

The visiting side had little answer to Hood’s pace and precision passing, the home side carving Social Club open time and time and again and the scoreline may have actually flattered Social Club.

Simmons scored his fourth to make it 11-0 on the hour mark moments before Russell, who had a goal disallowed for offside, struck the crossbar.

Smith then completed his treble with another tap-in as Hood continued to get behind the Social Club defence almost at will.

Substitute Arnezha Astwood, the first player to graduate from Hood’s youth academy, added his third for the season. Smith plundered his fourth before Caisey completed the rout with a superb volley into the bottom corner in the 80th minute.

John Barry Nusum, the Hood coach, said his side had achieved their goal of ensuring the title race goes down to the wire.

“We needed improve our goal average and put some pressure on PHC,” he said. “We got a lot more goals than I thought we would. I was hoping for five!”

Nusum praised his side for showing hunger for goals until the final whistle.

“We’re always talking about progression and making sure we’re doing the right things in the right moments regardless of what the situation is,” he added. “I’m definitely glad for that.”

Nusum, the former Bermuda captain, said he was pleased with the way his side have improved after a midseason sticky spell.

“It was around Christmans time when that happened,” he said.

“For me, the first season on the job, we were always going to find those little pockets when we weren’t playing the kind of football that we wanted to. But we got over that hump. We’ve done well, but we could have done better.”

TEAMS

Robin Hood: D Eve — J Pereira (sub: T Bean, 70min), P Froncioni, J Titterton, J Bather, C Caisey, D Andrade, L Symonds, A Russell (sub: A Astwood, 70), L Simmons (subL C Ricca, 67), S Shakir.

Social Club: K Butterfield — N Armstrong, K Arruda, M Rudo, P Mallory, C Woolridge, T Fubler, S Butterfield, D Adams, M Parsons, J Outerbridge. Substitutes not used: D Simons, J Simmons, K Francois. Booked: Outerbridge

Referee: L Cann.