Dandy Town 3 Paget Lions 2

Dandy Town captain Angelo Simmons capitalised on two defensive errors by Paget Lions late on to help his side pull off a comeback win at St John’s field yesterday.

Two-goal marksman Dion Stovell thought he had scored the winner after 62 minutes to give Paget the lead, which they held up until the 87th minute when they needlessly gave away a penalty.

They then cracked under constant pressure from Town and conceded the winner in the dying embers of the match. The defeat leaves Paget in the relegation zone.

“We thought it wasn’t going to be such a difficult game at the start,” Devar Boyles, the Town coach, said.

“Credit to Paget, they continued to play after going behind so early in the game. We trained really hard but still conceded unnecessary goals. In the end, we kept applying the pressure and we came through.”

Town attacked from the start and scored in the third minute when Eusebio Blankendal’s diagonal ball found the boot of Kwame Steede, who beat Jason Smith, the Paget goalkeeper, with a low drive. Appeals for offside were ignored by referee Lionel Cann.

Paget settled down after their early set back and mounted a few attacks of their own with Stovell in the centre of much of their good work.

On one occasion, the Paget danger man was put through and drew Jaiden Manders, the Town goalkeeper, off his line but the attack was nullified by two defenders who won possession just as he was about to shoot.

Such was Stovell’s presence that he had two defenders quickly on him every time he touched the ball.

Play see-sawed from end to end as Steede and Simmons combined for a give-and-go before Steede got off a shot that brought off a fine one-handed save by Smith.

Midway through the half, a miskick by Town defender Azendae Furbert put Stovell through but his low cross to Akele Bean was intercepted by the recovering defence.

Town midfielder Michael Parsons then tested Smith with a 25-yard strike which the goalkeeper did well to push around the post for a corner.

Paget equalised in the 43rd minute when Stovell rose above the Town defence to head into the top corner with Manders stranded on his goal line.

In the 62nd minute, Paget surprised Town and took the lead when Furbert misjudged a clearance by Jahnaiya Richardson allowing the ball to bounce over his head.

Stovell was the first to react as he latched onto the loose ball, fought off two defenders before sidestepping the goalkeeper and coolly chipping into an empty net.

With time running out, Town threw everything at Paget, forcing them to resort to desperate defending. Paget could sense the victory up until the 87th minute when two mistimed clearances led to their downfall.

Firstly, an attempted clearance slipped off the boot of Tahjae Welch and enabled Town to launch another attack, with a first-time cross to the back post finding Kwonde Lathan who was needlessly brought down in the box by defender Nelson Carpenter.

Simmons beat goalkeeper Smith to his left from the ensuing spot kick. The goalkeeper was then sent off as he had a few choice words for the officials resulting in Chare Smith putting on the No 1 jersey.

With two minutes remaining, another attempted clearance fell straight to Simmons just outside the penalty area. He advanced on goal before planting a low, hard drive past a diving Smith to send the Town fans into jubilation.

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Steede, Simmons 87, 89

Paget Lions: Stovell 43, 62

TEAMS

Dandy Town (4-4-2): J Manders — K Lathan, A Furbert, K Simmons, E Blankendal — M Parsons, S Darrell, A Mohamed (sub: N Spence, 73min), D Ming (sub: J Swan, 76) — A Simmons, K Steede. Substitutions not used: T Gibbons, O Wilson, Tre Manders

Paget Lions (4-1-3-2): J Smith — J Carpenter, J Richardson, K Hill-Tuzo, N Carpenter — K Smith (sub: M Piper 75) — D Hart, T Welch, C Smith — D Stovell, A Bean (sub: S Richardson, 73). Substitutions not used: A Dean, D Curtis, R Brangman, W Bean. Booked: Stovell 90. Sent off: J Smith.

Referee: L Cann.