North Village 1 PHC 4

PHC kept their title defence alive as they cantered to an incident-packed victory over North Village who had two players dismissed at Bernard Park.

Zebras suffered an early blow when Vincent Minors gave Village the lead in the first minute but the visitors recovered to record just their second league win of the season yesterday.

A defeat would have almost ended their aspirations of defending their Premier Division crown with coach Kyle Lightbourne admitting after the eventful encounter a third loss at this stage of the season would have left them with the proverbial mountain to climb.

"Another defeat wouldhave left us needing to win just about every remaining game of the season to stand any chance of winning the championship," he said.

Lighbourne could have been forgiven for wondering whether it was just not going to be his team's day when Omar Shakir saw his penalty palmed away by Calvin Augustus, after Jamal Boyles had been given an early shower for clearing the ball off the line with his hand.

But as the first half wore on PHC started to make the most of their numerical advantage and drew level when Aquino Grant bundled the ball after Augustus parried Kevin Lambe's header.

They nudged ahead early in the second stanza through a wonderful goal by Lambe who floated in a shot from distance after spotting Augustus narrowly off his line.

By now Zebras were dominating a weary-looking Village and extended their lead shortly after when Jayhai Raynor pounced on a loose ball in the box and fired home.

Substitute Lloyd Holder then tapped home a Johnny Ball cross from the left-wing to put the game out of Village's reach, who moments later suffered another sending off when Kofi Dill scythed down Casey Castle with a horrible challenge after being out-paced by the teenaged winger.

In the final minute Village's Pierre Smith won his side a penalty but saw his effort tipped onto the cross bar by goalkeeper Jay Smith who had conceded the spot kick.

Lightbourne said he knew his team's superior fitness would stand them in good stead against Village who he believed still looked tired after the Martommere Cup exertions.

"I knew Village wouldn't fancy playing back-to-back games against us," he said.

"I knew our superior fitness would give us the advantage. We've been our worst enemies this season by making too many sloppy mistakes and we made the worst possible start by conceding in the first minute.

"But we recovered and should have really killed the game off by half-time. I'm disappointed we missed so many good chances.

"It really was a must win game for us and at least now we're back in the mix."