Somerset Trojans 2Dandy Town 1Somerset coach Mike Corday hailed his side’s battling performance as they beat Dandy Town at Somerset Cricket Club to book a spot in the semi finals of the Friendship Trophy yesterday.Goals from Malachi Jones and Jahi Simmons were enough to give the West Enders the win while Town struck through Fabian Frankson.In less than ideal conditions, Town skipper Raymond Beach and Trojans Simmons were both sent off for dissent and bad tackle respectively.“It was a well played match by both sides, the conditions weren’t the best but we tried to play through them,” said Corday. “We knew Town have a tremendous side with pace and we put another person in the midfield and having some players out wide who can match their pace, we came to battle and I commend them for the job they did.”The match was always going to be a sloppy affair due to the elements, yet fans that braved mother nature were treated to an end-to-end game with plenty of action.Jones got the scoring underway in the 22nd minute when he was left unmarked in the area, making no mistake with his effort that beat Treadwell Gibbons in the Town goal.Town responded 16 minutes later when Frankson, who had a good game on the flanks, beat his marker to the ball and finished with composure.The second half saw both sides creating chances to put the game to rest.Town striker Lyn Tucker had his effort blocked on the line by Danvers Seymour and Beach also had his crisp shot saved by Trojans ‘keeper Shaquille Bean.Trojans missed chances as well with both Jones and winger Tahj Wade being wasteful in front of goal.The match seemed to be heading to extra-time when Trojans striker Johnny Bean was upended in the area going away from goal, resulting in a penalty for the hosts in the 82nd minute.Simmons calmly stepped up and rifled his shot into the goal to ultimately settle matters.Substitute Dane Simmons had a chance to make it three but hit his effort went right into the palms of Gibbons.Beach was sent off showing dissent to the referee in the dying minutes while Simmons was given his marching orders for a high tackle on George Dyer in injury time.Hornets will now limp into the New Year with the taste of defeat, something they haven’t tasted in quite some time.“I have to tip my hat to Town as well as they made us work the whole match,“ added Corday.” Every time you play them you have to bring your best game because to me they are the premier team in Bermuda.“I was pleased with the effort my team put forth and hopefully we can go about the next game as we did today.“We seem to be hitting our stride at the right time and we haven’t played to our full potential and still have a few players that are still to come back from overseas so this competition could be a good one for us.”Somerset Trojans: S Bean, D Seymour, T Ming, J Bean, T Wade, T Harvey, A Trott, J Bean, J Scott, J Butterfield(C Basden,75), M Jones(D Simmons,80)Goals: Jones,22, Simmons,82Yellow card: C BasdenSent off: J SimmonsDandy Town: T Gibbons, G Dyer, A Lowe, S Darrell, S Brown(S Tuzo,65), K Lathan, T Smith(T Manders,85), F Frankson, L Tucker(W Place,85), R Beach, D MingSubs not used: B MinorsGoals: F Frankson 38Sent off: R BeachReferee: E HolmesMan of the Match: J Butterfield