St George’s Colts 0 Dandy Town 1

David Jones Jr netted in the 52nd minute for Dandy Town to record a hard-fought victory over St George’s in a Dudley Eve group encounter at Bernard Park last night.

An unmarked Jones connected with the ball from a Tomiko Goater corner kick to beat the impressive Leo Harris, who had earlier made some breathtaking saves to repel the Town attacks.

“I’m happy to get the win and get us on course to move to the next round,” Jones told The Royal Gazette.

“I feel like we had more chances to score and we didn’t take them, but we’re working on our finishing. The St George’s goalkeeper was very much inspired, he made some good saves and it was not easy to get past him.”

The Bermuda forward conceded that they were not at their best and were looking to up the tempo as the season progresses.

“We still want to take our game to another level,” he said.

“We know we have to up it to another gear and so it’s coming. We see things are working out, we’ve got a few new players we’re trying to incorporate and get used to so I think it will work out in the end.

“Last season, we were knocked out of this competition by St George’s, but it’s a totally different team now. We’re still looking to go far and win trophies again this season.

“After the loss to North Village in the Charity Cup on Sunday, we tried to move on very quickly from a bad performance, so we let it go and we came out with a fresh mindset.”

While St George’s, who suffered a massive player exodus during the off-season were compact, Town dominated the early exchanges.

Harris produced two point-blank saves to deny Goater within a short space of time. The St George’s keeper also did well to keep Nizigh Spence’s effort out in the 24th.

A minute later, Jaidyn Robinson made a timely intervention to boot the ball out when St George’s made a dangerous raid.

The East Enders had the last chance of the first half when Jahron Dickinson’s free kick from the edge of the box sailed over.

After Town scored, Harris stopped Enrique Swan’s effort to ensure that they did not double their lead, but St George’s were unable to get anything past Jaiden Manders on the other end.

Meanwhile, in the second match of the group at the same venue, Village defeated Somerset Trojans 5-1. Calvin Dill Jr’s side raced to a 4-1 lead at the break and added a goal in the last 45 for a resounding victory.

SCORERS

Dandy Town: Jones 52

TEAMS

St George’s Colts: L Harris, R Young, D Signor, E Signor, C Neal, J Dickinson, Z Richardson, J Bassett, N Anderson, D Lodge, R Smith. Substitutes: J Carlington, G Wade, J Smith, M Tucker, C Ottley

Dandy Town: J Manders, E Moore, N Spence, E Outerbridge, A Bailey, B Hall, Q Maynard, E Swan, T Goater, D Jones, J Robinson. Substitutes: J Hill, S Smith, T Smith, T Manders, D Daniels, A Harvey, T Gibbons

Referee: D Jackson