PHC Zebras 0 Hamilton Parish 1

A well-taken penalty by star striker Jamie Smith after 62 minutes combined with a series of heriocs by goalkeeper Nigel Burgess in the second half enabled visiting Hamilton Parish to stun the defending league champions in this Premier Division clash at Southampton Oval yesterday.

It might be recorded as one of the biggest upsets of the season with new boys Parish, just promoted from the First Division, brushing off Kyle Lightbourne's reigning champions.

Hot Peppers started the day hovering second from the bottom with Zebras in fourth place and heavily favoured in their bid to retain their crown.

But during a game that rarely rose above mediocre in the first 45 minutes, Parish were able to take the upperhand when Zebras' centre-backs Omar Shakir and Mickey Lamb were penalised for impeding a Parish player in the box and it was from the resulting spot-kick that PHC fell behind.

The tempo increased, Zebras were forced to become more enterprising against their opponents who continued to demonstrate a great deal of fight and determination although clearly lacking ideas in the penalty area.

PHC showed more passion when play restarted after the break with skipper Chris Furbert slamming a 16-yard shot just wide and Aquino Grant putting an angled effort into the side-netting from 15 yards.

Then just before the penalty, Grant forced Burgess in the Parish goal to fall to the ground to smother another shot.

While Parish remained composed and surged forward with confidence after taking the lead, Zebras attempted to put their machine into top gear but to no avail.

Such was their plight with more firepower needed up front, they made two substitutions by bringing on Stevie Astwood and Casey Castle for Kevin Lambe and Jeff Franklin.

Within five minutes Astwood, recently released as one of the Bermuda Hogges' two franchise players, fell just short of making a dream debut when his forceful header was sensationally turned away by the efficient Burgess, the 'keeper leaping to slap it away and out of danger.

As Zebras piled on the pressure, the Parish defence refused to yield with centre-backs Calvin Hansey and Kaiya Darrell solid and Burgess continuing to thwart the attack.

Another close call for Zebras came after 75 minutes when Castle fired over on a breakaway before Burgess made a superb dive to turn away a rocket of a shot from Furbert after 84 minutes.

Two minutes later the keeper advanced off his goal-line to fall to block a point-blank shot from Castle.

PHC mounted sustained pressure near the end but with Burgess in fine form and his defence refusing to yield it became apparent the home side would pay heavily for their first-half misses.

PHC: J.Smith, I.Barry, M.Lamb, O.Shakir, J.Ball, B.Bean, C.Furbert, K.Lewis, A.Grant (S.Smith, 67 mins), K.Lambe (S.Astwood, 57 mins), J.Franklin (C.Castle, 57 mins). Subs not used: C.Dowling, J.Almeida, K.Griffith, C.Robinson.

Hamilton Parish: N.Burgess; R.Ebbin, C.Hansey, K.Darrell, T.Webb; N.Robinson, N.Smith (J.Lambert, 81 mins), C.Caisey; L.Raynor (R.Evans, 35 mins), P.Richardson (R.Richardson, 88 mins), J.Smith. Subs not used: R.Somner.

Yellow cards: M.Lamb (PHC); J.Smith, C.Caisey (Parish).

Referee: Alton Reid.

Men of the match: N.Burgess (Parish).