Young Men’s Social Club 2 Boulevard 3

Aldonte Smith scored two goals and set up substitute Khiry Easton’s winner as Boulevard sealed Social Club’s relegation at Police Field yesterday.

The son of former Blazers midfielder Albert Smith opened the scoring with an audacious lob from outside of the box after the home side were slow reacting to the second ball deep in their own half.

But Social Club regrouped and hit back twice in 17 minutes to stun the visitors and take a 2-1 advantage into the break.

Smith grabbed a second from the penalty spot to bring the teams level again early in the second half after Social Club handled in the area, then whipped in a cross that Easton nodded home at the back post to secure the points and send the hosts back down into the First Division.

Blazers midfielder Smith was denied the opportunity for a hat-trick after he picked up a leg injury and was replaced by Teron Butterfield in the 70th minute.

The visitors dominated the early exchanges with midfielders Takeyhi Walker and Kamali Davis carving out pockets of space in the attacking third with their crisp passing.

Boulevard should have opened their account when Davis’s defence-splitting pass left Smith with only Donovan Adams, the Social Club goalkeeper, to beat. But after hesitating to unleash Smith’s tame effort was comfortably dealt with as the home side cleared their lines.

Still, Blazers pressed on and their relentless pressure finally told with Smith making amends for his earlier miss. Jahzardae Samuels’s effort was blocked and before the Social Club defence could react Smith pounced and lobbed over Adams’s head from 25-yards out to give Boulevard a deserved lead.

The goal failed to knock Social Club’s confidence and after Nique Armstrong joined Saki Tuzo up top in attack the home side quickly turned things around.

Social Club’s first goal came against the run of play. Menelik Rudo, the midfielder, won the ball inside his own half and fed a pass to Armstrong. After drawing the defence towards him, Armstrong passed the ball into open space for Tuzo to run on to and smash past Runniko Burchall, the Blazers goalkeeper.

The hosts then took a shocking lead in spectacular fashion when Michael Smith, the midfielder, beat Burchall with a thumping volley from 30 yards. Giovanni Saltus switched up the play with a superb pass to Smith, who took a touch before rifling in a wicked left footed shot inside the near post.

Boulevard were forced to make a change at the start of the second half after Dunn-Ya Taylor, the captain, re-aggravated a calf injury.

Social Club should have extended their lead when the well positioned Tuzo sliced Andrew Samuels’s rebound wide.

That miss proved costly as Boulevard found a way back in after full back Khylais Rawlings handled Smith’s cross and the latter made no mistake from the penalty spot.

Boulevard then regained the lead for good through Easton’s winner as the hosts were again made to pay for porous defending.

Social Club nearly grabbed a late equaliser. However, Jahmair Lewis-Trott, the captain, had a point blank effort saved by Burchall at the near post.

But even had Lewis-Trott converted it would not have been enough to prevent Social Club from taking the plunge as they had to win at all costs to keep their survival hopes alive for at least another week.

SCORERS

Social Club

Tuzo 7, Smith 38

Boulevard

A Smith 21, 51, Easton 59

TEAMS

Social Club (4-5-1): D Adams — C Woolridge, K Francois, J Lewis-Trott, K Rawlings (sub: T Fubler, 61) — M Smith, M Rudo (sub: M Parsons, 70), G Saltus, A Samuels, N Armstrong (sub: P Darrell, 70) — S Tuzo. Substitutes not used: K Arruda, J Simmons, S Butterfield.

Boulevard (4-5-1): R Burchall — Z Stovell, J Williams, K Smith, A Famous — N Smith, D Taylor (sub: K Easton, 46), A Smith (sub: T Butterfield, 70), K Davis, T Walker — J Samuels. Substitutes not used: T Stovell, Y Darrell, S Stovell, D Trott. Booked: N Smith, Samuels.

Referee: L Cann