Somerset Eagles 3 X-Roads Warriors 2

Substitute Koshun Durrant scored a dramatic 90th-minute winner as Somerset Eagles picked up their first win of the season yesterday at White Hill Field, against fellow strugglers X-Roads Warriors.

Durrant, a 65th-minute replacement for Ethan Fubler, took a pass from Nathan Rego on the right side of the box and drilled his effort past goalkeeper Dashun Cooper and into the far corner to secure his team’s first points of the campaign to move off the bottom of the table.

Eagles had the best of starts, striker Tahj Wade scoring in the 21st and 29th minutes to give them a comfortable lead. The first was from a free kick on the left side of the box after Rego had been fouled by Andre Burgess, Wade driving his shot into the far corner. Wade then added a second from close range as the X-Roads defence was again penetrated.

However, Eagles’ joy was short-lived, as X-Roads hit back with two goals in the space of four minutes, with captain Paul Simons creating one and scoring the other. His shot was blocked by goalkeeper Lorenzo Lambert’s legs and Donovan Thompson followed up to score.

Simons then went on a 25-yard run into the box on the left side before shooting into the roof of the net from inside the box.

X-Roads carried that momentum into the second half, as they had a goal in the 68th-minute goal disallowed for offside after Ian Coke’s effort from long range was tipped on to a post by the diving Lambert and Thompson followed up to score. The match was held up for a few minutes after Lambert collided with the upright and needed treatment.

“After we went up 2-0, as soon as they scored their first goal they started to believe that they could come back and within a few minutes they scored a second,” said Jensen Rogers, the Eagles coach.

“We always knew it was going to be difficult after that and in the second half it was a back-and-forth battle. At times it looked like they had the stronghold on us. We rode our luck with the offside goal.”

SCORERS

Somerset Eagles: Wade 21, 29, Durrant 90

X-Roads Warriors: Thompson 35, Simons 39

TEAMS

Somerset Eagles (4-4-2): L Lambert — S Lambert, K Evans, D Woolridge, K Abraham — E Fubler (sub: K Durrant, 65min), S Greenidge-Saltus (sub: M Iris-Simmons, 65), D Joell, A Telford — T Wade, N Rego. Substitutes not used: A Butterfield, A Morrissey, D Simmons.

X-Roads Warriors (4-4-2): D Cooper — A Burgess, M Furr, T Burgess, C Minors — J Bean, R Turnbull (sub: K Brangman, 57), F Turnbull (sub: D Woolridge, 81), P Simons — I Coke (sub: T Perinchief, 87), D Thompson. Substitutes not used: C Trott, J Sanchez. Booked: Furr.

Referee: T Simons.