North Village 2 X-Roads 0North Village eased past the X-Roads with two unanswered goals in the first-half at Bernard Park yesterday before a sparse crowd. Justin Bell and a deflected Rai Simons’s goal were sufficient to secure the three points and keep a clean sheet for stand in goalkeeper Pierre Smith deputising for Tahj Bell, who was off the island. The game started at a slow pace with Village establishing control from the outset. Village were penetrating X-Roads’ right side with Devrae Tankard and Bell keeping right back Chioke Hayward busy with daunting overlapping runs.The opening goal would come in the eighteenth minute when defender Tyler Knights floated a diagonal pass to Bell, who controlled then cut inside his marker to score with a low drive from an angle that beat the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Jez Burrows. Simons, Keishen Bean and midfielder Troy Tucker then combined well for the latter to get off a screaming shot that Burrows did well to save. This was closely followed by a Tankard clearance to Bell who played the ball inside to Bean only for his shot to miss the upright by inches. Such was Village’s dominance that X-Roads strike pair of Donovan Thompson and Paul Simons did not test Smith until the 29th minute when Thompson received a long pass from captain Patrick Richardson but shot straight at the goalkeeper who was well positioned. The second goal came moments later when Bean slipped a pass to Simons whose initial shot took a deflection off a defender and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way before spinning into the back of the net. X-Roads almost scored before the break when Jamin Furbert made a forceful run from his defence before passing to Thompson but his shot just missed the cross bar as it went over the top. X-Roads made a technical switch in the second half, moving Tymon Daniels into an attacking midfield role. This allowed their front two to come more into their game and almost created a goal when Simons squared to Thompson whose shot was blocked by the feet of the advancing Smith before going out for a corner. Village almost gifted the visiting side a goal midway through the half when a misunderstanding between Smith and defender Zeon Robinson allowed Thompson to stab at the goal but his effort wide.X-Roads should have scored when Andre Burgess chipped a perfect ball over the Village defence for Daniels to beat the offside trap but he miscontrolled the ball with only the goalkeeper to beat.The visiting side had a chance to score a consolation goal when Mauriq Hill combined with Thompson but his shot was deflected for corner.Kenny Thompson, the Village coach, said he was satisfied with his side’s performance.“The first half was quality,” he said. “We dominated possession and were able to penetrate down our left side. We knew they would come at us in the second half so we just tried to maintain possession and not let them play. I also appreciate the shutout, which does well for our goal average.” SCORERSNorth Village: Bell, 18 Parsons 29TEAMSNorth Village (4-2-3-1): P Smith — D Tankard, Z Robinson, T Knights, Q Lema — J Briers, T Tucker — J Bell, K Bean, Demitre Daniels (sub: C Caisey-Zuill, 80) — R Simons (sub: Jarreau Daniels, 65). Substitutes not used: D Dillas, R Murphy, Z Hendrickson, A Darrell.X-Roads (4-4-2): J Burrows — C Hayward, K Wilkinson, J Furbert, T Daniels — P Richardson (J Lottimore 57) A Burgess, A Heyliger (J Sanchez 57), M Hill — D Thompson, P Simons. Substitutes not used: C McDowall, D Woolridge, D Cooper. Bookings: C Hayward 75).Referee: T Simons.