PHC Zebras 5 Robin Hood 0

PHC Zebras thumped five past Robin Hood to get their season off to a flying start at PHC Field yesterday.

Marco Warren grabbed what ultimately proved to be the winner from the penalty spot just before the break before second-half tallies from Enrique Russell, Daren Usher (two) and substitute Antwan Russell put the match well beyond the visiting side’s reach.

Jerez Eve, the PHC goalkeeper, dealt with the few threats that came his way to maintain a clean sheet.

“The performance was pretty good but we still have stuff we need to work on,” Winston Trott Jr, the PHC coach, said. “We need to tighten up on a few areas.”

It took PHC nearly until the half to finally break Hood’s resistance before they blew the floodgates wide open after the break.

“It was a slow start and we had to make the adjustments,” Trott added. ”They packed their midfield and defence, so basically we just had to break down how they were playing, which took us too long to make the adjustment.“

The heavy loss put a damper on Danté Leverock’s debut as player/coach for a youthful Hood squad.

“Obviously a long way to go,” he said. “But I’m proud of the boys.

“That was one of the better teams in the league as well, so credit to them.”

Hood started on the front foot playing a high line and created the first real opening, which striker Chae Brangman shot wide after getting in behind the defence.

PHC responded with Leverock blocking Enrique Russell’s angled shot in the box. The striker then spurned a glorious opportunity when he blasted Warren’s pass over from 15 yards.

Hood seized control of the middle of the park and enjoyed a good spell of possession. But they wasted another golden chance when Aaron Nelson’s inviting low cross rolled untouched across the goalmouth.

The visitors then dodged a bullet after Makai Joell side-footed a partial clearance over the bar from 12 yards.

By now PHC had figured Hood out and started poking holes in their defence with their fluent ball movement.

The home side’s unrelenting pressure finally told when Jaylon Bather brought down Enrique Russell in the box and Warren, the PHC captain, converted the resulting penalty in clinical fashion.

Whatever words Trott uttered to his players at the half had the desired effect as the hosts completely dominated and made the most of their chances when play resumed.

Enrique Russell doubled PHC’s advantage from the penalty spot after the lively Usher was tripped up in the area.

The two players then combined for PHC’s third with Hood now in damage-control mode.

Russell intercepted a poor back-pass and fed Usher, who calmly stroked the ball home from close range.

Usher then swept in Shakhai Trott’s corner from a goalmouth scramble for his second of the afternoon.

Former Hood pair Antwan Russell and Casey Castle came off the bench and combined to round off the scoring for the hosts.

Russell chased down Castle’s long pass and slipped the ball under advancing Hood goalkeeper Ande Simons to complete the shutout win.

SCORERS

PHC: M Warren 37 pen, E Russell 57 pen, D Usher 64, 74, A Russell 89

TEAMS

PHC (4-2-3-1): J Eve 5 — D Smith-Lightbourne 5 (sub: C Castle 83min), M Lambe 5, N Griffith 5, D Usher 6 (sub: K Hypolite 79) — R DeShields 5, M Joell 5 (sub: A Russell 65 4) — K Abraham 5 (sub: K Bean 79), M Warren 6, S Trott 5 — E Russell 6 (sub: T Ming 79). Substitutes not used: O Tucker, Z Ming-Wilson.

Robin Hood (3-4-3): A Simons 3 — J Bather 4, D Leverock 4, C Robinson 3 — K Knights 3, L Evans 4, A Nelson 4, K Naylor 3 (sub: N Outerbridge 65 3) — E Outerbridge 4, T Bean (sub: T Goater 46 3), C Brangman 3 (sub: C Ricca 76).

Referee: A Francis.