PHC 2 Robin Hood 0

Superb finishes from Casey Castle and Marco Warren earned PHC Zebras a well-deserved victory against a lacklustre Robin Hood in the Premier Division at PHC Field yesterday.

In a repeat of this season’s Dudley Eve Trophy final, which PHC won 2-0, Hood made the brighter start, twice threatening in the first few minutes through midfielder Nathan Peskett, who volleyed over from the edge of the area before his turn and shot was saved by Troy Hall Jr, the PHC goalkeeper.

PHC slowly began to exert their dominance over the visiting side who were coached by Timmy Figureido, the former Bermuda goalkeeper, in the absence of Kyle Lightbourne, with Anthony Hunter, the Zebras midfielder,firing over after a half clearance from Phil Froncioni.

It took an individual piece of brilliance on 25 minutes from Castle to break the deadlock with the PHC striker latching onto a through ball and crashing his shot beyond the outstretched right hand of Jason Simons, the Hood goalkeeper.

Hood’s woes worsened when midfielder Aaron Nelson was forced off with an injury, his replacement Kenny DeSilva making little impact and he, too, was substituted on 80 minutes as the visiting side chased an equaliser.

Moments before half-time Hood nearly conceded again with defender Chris Fosker blocking a powerful long-range shot from Julian Carpenter before Simons was called upon to deny Cecoy Robinson from close range, saving with his feet.

The second half proved to be largely uneventful with Hood creating very little as PHC enjoyed the superior swathes of possession. A looping header from Tristan Hall from a Robinson free kick drifted harmlessly over Simons’s crossbar before Hall combined with fellow substitute Marco Warren for PHC’s second on 82 minutes.

The impish Warren wriggled his way into the box after beating several leaden-footed Hood defenders before playing a neat one-two with Hall and finishing with aplomb past Simons to seal the win.

Mark Wade, the PHC coach, admits his team have suffered from inconsistency this season but was encouraged by their display against Hood.

“I thought they were two well-taken goals, the second was a bit of a team effort,” Wade said.

“I was pleased we kept a clean sheet. I’m always telling the players they should take pride in that, but then again, I was a defender.

“We talked about being humble because this season we’ve often lost the very next game after getting a good result.

“I wouldn’t say we expected to win but we wanted to play well, work hard and the results will come.”

Wade had an embarrassment of riches at his disposal with the team’s overseas college players returning to the Island for the festive period.

Among those on the bench were Bermuda midfielder Tre Ming, Warren and Hall, who combined for PHC’s second, and gifted teenager Diondre Dowling.

“It’s nice and it’s a headache at the same time,” Wade said. “We do want to use our college players and we are proud of them.

“We also want to make sure the locally-based players get some minutes.”