North Village 4 St George's Colts 1

Amir Dill was involved in all four goals as North Village overpowered St George’s Colts in a Premier Division encounter at Bernard Park last night.

Dill, who found the target in the 31st and 71st minutes also helped set up goals for Jordan Outerbridge in the 46th and 75th minutes. St George’s scored a consolation when captain Kashe Hall slotted a penalty in the 55th minute.

The 20-year-old told was delighted to open his account for the season with a double. “Those were my first goals of the season,” Dill told The Royal Gazette.

“It feels great, it shows that I’m finally getting back into my rhythm. I should have started a few games ago, but it takes time. When the goals come, they do come. Now I'm kind of in the flow now and it’s only going to get better,” he added.

“I would say today was a game where I was able to express myself, show what I'm capable of and that's what I like to do. I go out there and put it all out on the field.”

Dill was one of the scorers when St George’s won 3-2 against Village at Bernard Park in January, a result which dented Village’s title pursuit at the time, before they eventually wrapped it up in March.

“Usually, they come down here and they take the game away from us and end up beating us,” he said.

“But today, we showed them who we are, showed them what Village is about. We left it all out on the field and got the three points.

“I think the key to this victory was more on the defensive side. Because we tend to slack sometimes after we go up and we allow them to play through us and get goals.

“But today, we did a little better and shut down the better players. We put them out of the game and allowed ourselves to have more time on the ball.”

Village, who struggled at the start of the season, have now recorded three wins on the spin and scored ten goals in those victories.

“We’re getting back into our rhythm,” Dill said.

“We started very slow, but we’re starting to pick up the pace. We’re now showing what we’re capable of, climbing the ladder back to the top of the table.”

Village were forced into an early substitution after Rai Sampson limped off with a leg injury and was replaced by Khimo Harrison in the twelfth minute.

Seke Spence had a great chance to open the scoring for Village on the half-hour mark when he was set up by Jonté Smith but shot agonisingly wide.

Dill struck for Village a minute later when he applied the finish after Smith headed the ball into his path.

A minute into the second half, Dill surged past St George’s defenders down the right flank. He displayed some fancy footwork and released the ball to Outerbridge, who held off a strong challenge from Maquel Nisbett-Tankard and tucked the ball through Troy Hall Jr’s legs into the net.

Smith held his head in disbelief after sending another free header wide from an Outerbridge corner in the 52nd minute.

Leroy Lewis Jr, who won two penalties when St George’s drew 2-2 with X-Roads last Sunday, secured a spot-kick for his team when Harrison sent him tumbling inside the box. Hall sent Detre Bell the wrong way to cut the deficit.

Smith had his header from a Terryn Fray free kick cleared off the line. Shortly afterwards, St George’s launched a counter-attack and Lewis forced Bell into a save.

Smith struck the post in the 68th minute but three minutes later, the forward set up Dill to complete his brace with a dink over the keeper.

Soon afterwards, Dill managed to retain possession despite going to ground, passed to London Steede-Jackson, who put Outerbridge through for his second goal.

Lewis had a great opportunity to reduce the arrears for St George’s with two minutes left but shot wide.

SCORERS

North Village: Dill, 31, 71 Outerbridge 46, 75

St George's Colts: K Hall 55 pen

TEAMS

North Village (4-3-3): D Bell 6 — Q Outerbridge 6 (sub: K Cann, 87min), R Sampson (sub: K Harrison, 12 6), T Fray 6, J Outerbridge 6 — T Williams 6, S Spence 6 (sub: T Tucker 81), C Caisey (sub: K Knights, 81) — A Dill 8, L Steede-Jackson 7 (sub: Jabri Hayward, 81), J Smith 7. Substitutes not used: Jabari Hayward. Booked: Steede-Jackson, Caisey

St George's Colts (4-2-3-1): T Hall 6 — M Nisbett Tankard 6 (sub: M Simmons, 80), O Bascome 6, C Neal 6 (sub: N Paynter, 80), J Bassett 6 (sub: A Foy, 68 5) — L Evans 6, K Hall 6 — I Gibbons 6 (sub: Z McGuire, 46 6), B Hall 6, M Trott 6 — L Lewis 6. Substitutes not used: A Foy, T Bell, I Greaves, J Dickinson. Booked: K Hall.

Referee: M Weir.