Southampton Rangers 1

PHC 0

Keith Jennings scored on his return to top-flight football as ten-man Southampton Rangers picked PHC's pocket.

Jennings struck deep into injury time with his side's first, and only, effort on goal, and robbed the visiting team of a point which would have been the very least they deserved.

PHC battered their hosts for 90 minutes at Southampton Oval yesterday, but were denied by an heroic goalkeeping performance from Jason Smith, desperate defending, and some wasteful finishing, that saw them squander enough chances to have won the game three times over.

Strikers Cecoy Robinson and Lloyd Holder were the chief culprits, firing the ball well within Smith's reach on numerous occasions, but they were by no means alone, with Chris Furbert, Casey Castle, and Jeff Franklin all wasting opportunities to score.

In contrast Rangers were non-existent in attack, and were statuesque in defence, spending much of the game watching a far-better PHC side pass the ball round them, through them, and over them.

However, when it counted, from the second minute, when Smith tipped a Furbert thunderbolt over the bar, to the 88th minute when he did it again, PHC could not find the killer touch.

The inability to score finally started to get to PHC, who lost their shape and composure in a second half that at one stage threatened to get out of hand. Blenn Bean was booked for an innocuous tackle soon after the re-start, and was quickly followed into the book by Robinson, and Omar Shakir, both for fouls that only referee George O'Brien saw. O'Brien's rather eccentric performance did little to calm the rising tempers on both benches, and the awarding of a phantom throw-in, when he alone believed the ball had gone out in front of the dugouts, saw managers and coaches from both sides rise up in protest.

Such was PHC boss Kyle Lightbourne's outrage that he sent himself to the stands for five minutes to calm down, rather than put himself in a situation where he might be charged by the Bermuda Football Association for bringing the game into disrepute. There were no complaints from anyone over the sending off of Rangers substitute David Tucker however, who was dismissed for an ugly two-footed challenge on PHC goalkeeper Raymond Glasford just 14 minutes after coming on.

As the game drew to a close PHC did manage to regain some semblance of composure, surging forward in search of the goal their dominance should have brought. But instead, as is so often the case in these situations, they were caught out by Jennings' sucker-punch.

The Rangers midfielder picked the ball up just inside the PHC half, and, spotting Glasford someway off his line, ran forward before sending in a dipping shot from 25 yards out that the PHC goalkeeper just couldn't get to.

Southampton Rangers: J.Smith, K.Simmons, T.Brown, D.Charles, M.Williams, K.Jennings, D.Francis, J.Bean, J.Dill, K.Smith (D.Tucker, 59), V.Perinchief (A.Raynor).

Substitues not used: K.Symonds, E.Albouy, J.Caisey.

Goals: Jennings 90

PHC: R Glasford, C Dowling, O Shakir, S Smith, F.Frankson, B.Bean (K.Mills, 76), J.Sealey, C.Furbert, J.Franklin (C.Castle, 58), L.Holder (S.Astwood, 76), C.Robinson.

Substitutes not used: M.Lambe, K.Lambe, Q.Burgess, Khamisi Lightbourne.

Yellow cards: Shakir, Bean, Robinson (PHC)

Red card: Tucker (Rangers)

Referee: G O'Brien

Man of the match: J.Smith (Rangers)