Dandy Town 1 North Village 0

David Jones Jr struck early as Dandy Town retained their Friendship Trophy crown in a tight final at Wellington Oval on New Year’s Day.

Jones, one of the scorers in the victory over PHC a year ago, found the net in the seventh minute to give Town an early lead with his tenth goal in all competitions this season.

Jarreau Hayward’s side should have put the game out of sight, with only Village goalkeeper Detre Bell preventing the champions from extending their advantage, and after the match Jones spoke to The Royal Gazette about his delight at winning the trophy again..

“It feels good to score again and to win the trophy back-to-back,” Jones said.

“I’m very happy and the team is very happy. We’ve been working hard all season and we’re going to keep pushing for more.

“I was excited to get a goal in the first 15 minutes and that’s what we planned to do but it was a sticky game going forward after that. We had a couple of chances and could have ended the game, but our defenders did their job and they brought it home for us.”

Hayward, who has also guided his team to the top of the league table at the halfway stage, was delighted to clinch the trophy in his first season as head coach of Town after winning the competition as Kyle Lightbourne’s assistant last year.

“My players really deserve it and they’re putting in a lot of work,” Hayward said.

“We still have a ways to go but today was an excellent step. The match was pretty good and in the first half we controlled the game.

“In the second half we ran away from our game plan and Village had a chance to come back, but these guys were resilient. We created plenty of chances to end it early, but that’s football and I have to salute North Village and Patches [Calvin Dill Jr] as they gave us a hell of a battle.

“We created chances early, which pleased me because we haven’t been good enough in the attacking box. In the defensive box we’ve been excellent, but we have to improve in the offensive box and we will.”

The Town coach credited Lightbourne, who is now Cecoy Robinson’s assistant at PHC, for laying the groundwork for success.

“Last year Kyle Lightbourne helped set the foundation for what’s happening right now,” Hayward said.

“So hats off to him and we’re very thankful for him. We just have to keep trusting the process and keep it going.”

The defeat left Village still searching for their first Friendship final win since the 2011-12 season. Despite missing out on adding to his silverware collection, coach Dill, who won the league and FA Cup with the club last season, commended his players for their effort .

“I haven’t won this as a coach, so next year we can try to do it again,” Dill said.

“Nevertheless, I’m still proud of my players. I have told them to keep their heads up and focus on the future.

“I thought it was a contested game and they came out on top. We fought to the end but they kept coming and got the win. We gave up an early goal and then we had to fix a few things from the first half.

I thought we were dropping too deep in the first half and allowing them to play. Going into the second half, we fixed it and we thought we could have come out with a result.

“I have to give credit to my goalkeeper for the three saves he made from the breakaways, but I can’t be mad at the boys as they played well today.”

Town started off brightly and were rewarded when Lazai Outerbridge, arguably the best player on display in the final, chipped the ball across for Jones. While Bell stopped the initial effort, the forward pounced on the rebound to score the only goal of the match.

Village fought back with Jalen Harvey’s header from a Knory Scott free kick going over in the seventeenth minute.

Ten minutes later, Bell pulled off a save to stop a well-struck free kick from Nizigh Spence’s free kick. On the half-hour mark, the Village captain kept his side in the game with a superb save to deny Outerbridge.

London Steede-Jackson missed a glorious opportunity to equalise for Village before the end of the first half. He connected with a through ball from Tah-mi Williams and charged down the right side, but with all the time in the world to make a decision, he blasted his effort way off target.

Town had two chances to stretch their lead, with Riley Robinson and captain Tomiko Goater shooting across the face of the goal.

Bell was twice called into action to keep Village within touching distance, with the goalkeeper producing excellent saves eleven minutes apart.

Substitute Kennahz Fray had a chance in the last minute when Jahkari Furbert whipped in a cross from the left, which the former Bermuda under-17 forward blasted wide.

Jonté Smith, who was tightly marked by the Town defence throughout, could have taken the game to an extra 30 minutes, but he could not get the ball past an alert Jahquil Hill in stoppage time.

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Jones 7

TEAMS

Dandy Town (4-3-3): J Hill 6 — L Simmons 6, D Leverock 6, E Moore 6, T Webb 6 — Q Maynard 6 (sub: E Swan, 73min), N Spence 6 (sub: D Daniels, 73), L Outerbridge 8 — R Robinson 6 (sub: J Furbert, 78), D Jones 7 (sub: A Simmons, 78), T Goater 6 (sub: K Fray, 78). Substitutes not used: H Dill, E Blankendal, A Trott, J Manders. Booked: Leverock

North Village (3-4-2-1) D Bell 7 — Q Outerbridge 6, J Harvey 7, K Knights 6 — J Outerbridge 6, S Spence 6 (sub: J Bean, 74), A Santos 5 (sub: A DeShields-Tankard, 45 6) T Williams 6 — K Scott 6 (sub: J Smith-DeShields, 63 6), L Steede-Jackson 6 — J Smith 6. Substitutes not used: T Tucker, J Sukdeo, P Smith, C Easton-Smith, K Cann, A Brangman-Johnson. Booked: Scott, Q Outerbridge

Referee: A Majors.