North Village 1

Devonshire Colts 0

A second half Jason Lee strike ensured North Village made a winning start to the Premier Division season against Devonshire Colts.

Village were guilty of missing a glut of goalscoring chances throughout the match but finally made the breakthrough midway through the second period when Lee powered home a header from a corner in the 74th minute.

Shaun Goater's team were forced to play the final half an hour with ten men as they were unable to replace the injured Kaiwon Dill having already made their quota of substitutes.

Despite their profligacy in front of goal, Village were well worth the victory although Devonshire Colts' coach Keishon Smith would have at least been pleased with his team's desire and effort.

His opposite number, Goater, said he was relieved to secure all three points but stressed there was still plenty of work to be done if Village were to mount a title challenge during this, his first full season as Rams' coach.

"Obviously we'll take the win and it's always important to make a good start to the season, but there's still a lot of work to be done," Goater said.

"Going down to ten men made life difficult for us but we showed plenty of character to come through in the end.

"We missed a lot of good chances and I was starting to wonder whether the goal was ever going to come."

Goater blooded a number of young players in his starting line-up with the likes of Logan Alexander, Pierre Smith, Ryan Tyrell and Lee all showing promise in patches.

Rookie defender Devrae Tankard also enjoyed an encouraging game at centre half and seems to have benefitted greatly from his summer playing for Bermuda under-23s.

"We lost a few senior players in the summer and that's given an opportunity to some of our younger guys to show they're ready for the first-team," said Goater. "I thought a few of the guys were decent today."

Village should have had the win wrapped up by half-time with Lee and Ralph Bean, deployed in a deeper role, all going close for the hosts, while Tyrell's right-wing cross drifted onto the bar.

Both teams suffered a catalogue of injuries with Thomas Watson, Smith and Dill all forced out of the game for Village, while Colts' Terry Foote was taken to hospital after a heavy challenge. Colts did show plenty of appetite for the battle which bodes well for their hopes of survival but were never able to seriously trouble Village 'keeper Jason Williams.

North Village: J.Williams, T.Watson (J.Briers 34), R.Wilson, D.Tankard, L.Alexander, K.Dill, S.DeGraff, R.Bean, P.Smith (T.Fray 50), R.Tyrell (C.Castle Jr 55), J.Lee

Substitutes not used: M.Young, M.Swan

Devonshire Colts: J.Wade, J.Butterfield, E.Wilkin, T.Foote (A.Famous 41), Q.Jones, C.Durham, M.Piper, D.Williams, C.Trott (Z.Darrell 75), M.Burch, K.Jones (B.Robinson 75)

Substitutes not used: G.Rose, K.Lambe, O.Ray

Scorers: J.Lee (Village)

Yellow cards: R.Wilson, P.Smith (Village) Q.Jones (Colts)

Referee: G.O'Brien

Man of the Match: D.Tankard (Village)