North Village kept alive their slim hopes of a First Division league championship while virtually eliminating Dandy Town from contention with a brilliant 3-0 win at Bernard Park yesterday.

Spurred on by the continued presence of national team goalkeeper Dwayne Adams, the Red Devils ran roughshod over a lame Town outfit and moved past them to third in the standings.

Clinton Caisey, Philip Clarke and Kevin Jennings counted themselves among the goal-scorers for the home side, who led 1-0 at half-time.

The death knell for Town came early, when first Pernell Douglas left the pitch midway through the opening half with a strained hamstring and striker Carlos Smith incurred a groin injury.

Surprisingly, however, coach Mark Trott stayed with Smith, choosing instead to bring on George Dyer for Gladwin Johnson to begin the second half. This move proved fatal as Smith found it increasingly more difficult to get about, effectively reducing Town to playing a man short.

Still, Trott offered no excuses on his side's performance saying that the better team on the day had won and that his men had simply not performed up to par...especially with the issue of a league title at stake.

For all of this, Town ruled the opening minutes with several fine attacking moves that caused anxious moments in the Village defence.

Nine minutes on Town's Walter Musson blazed down the left wing before crossing the ball into the middle where Johnson muffed a gift opportunity to send his team ahead.

A minute later Douglas' attempted lob of Adams was cleared by a recovering Village defence.

"That is not acceptable'' was the cry from the Hornets' bench after Johnson's miss, but then there was not much they did in the match that was...

From that point on Village were continually able to make inroads towards the Town goal and only superb goalkeeping by Ricky Tucker and wayward shooting kept scoring to a minimum...at least until the second half.

Village's young midfielder Kimande Binns weighed in with two good efforts, having a header from a Kevin Jennings corner cleared off the line in the 14th minute and later scorching a left-footed drive wide.

A minute into injury time the home side finally capitalised on this domination as Elliott Jennings found room to roam on the left, totally outstripping the defence before slipping the ball inside for Caisey to bury the ball past a helpless Tucker.

The same scenario continued in the second half with Village moving forward.

Tucker brought the crowd to its feet with three spectacular diving saves, but was unable to hold out his opponents on his own as Clarke and Kevin Jennings produced solo efforts to seal away the victory.

Jennings' goal in particular was a treat to watch as he picked up a ball deep in his own half and carried it all the way to the Town penalty area before letting loose on a drive that swerved and left Tucker going the wrong way.

North Village: D.Adams; W.Augustus, M.Hansey, S.Smith, K.Grant; R.Edness, K.Binns (S.Coddington, 50 mins), C.Caisey; K.Jennings, E.Jennings, P.Clarke (S.Dill, 87 mins).

Dandy Town: R.Tucker; L.Christopher, W.Campbell, N.Paynter, W.Rudo; G.Johnson (G.Dyer, 45 mins), P.Douglas (R.Parsons, 27 mins); W.Musson, P.Cann, D.Robinson, C.Smith.

Referee: Rex Osborne.

Men of the match: Clinton Caisey (North Village); Ricky Tucker (Dandy Town).

TIGHT SQUEEZE -- Dandy Town's Paul Cann is having a tough time with North Village's Kevin Grant, left, and Steven Coddington.