Young Men’s Social Club 0 PHC 3

PHC will have to wait until after the final group matches are played on Saturday to see if they make it through to the Dudley Eve Trophy semi-finals as the best runners-up.

Cecoy Robinson’s side easily beat Young Men’s Social Club at Devonshire Rec last night but not by enough goals to usurp Devonshire Cougars at the top of the group.

Enrique Russell’s first-half brace and a solitary strike from substitute Kadeem Abraham earned Robinson his first win as PHC coach. But it was not such a great return to his family club for Bermuda forward Zeiko Lewis, who ended up on the vanquished side.

Zebras finished second in group B with four points, losing out on the top spot on goal difference to Devonshire Cougars. Results of the last fixtures in group A will determine if PHC sneak into the last four of the preseason competition.

Russell, who was on international duty when PHC drew 2-2 with Cougars in their first match of the competiton, opened the scoring in the sixth minute. The Bermuda forward raced onto a great ball from De-Andre Smith-Lightbourne and buried it into the far post.

Social Club had their first chance in the 21st minute when Josh Hardtman’s chested effort went wide. A minute later, Clay Darrell did well to have a crack at goal only for his effort to finish off target.

Russell got his second goal in the 36th minute when he burst through after the Social Club defence failed to deal with Aaron Nelson’s pass.

PHC continued searching for more goals as Jenico Sealey and Arnezha Astwood were denied by Ryan Evans.

Abraham came close in the 66th minute with a powerful strike which was forced out for a corner by Evans. The substitute eventually struck two minutes before the end after making a great run from the right and blasting the ball into the net.

SCORERS

PHC: Russell 6, 36, Abraham 88

TEAMS

Young Men’s Social Club (4-3-3): R Evans 6 — J Smith 6 (sub: T Butterfield, 64min), B Swan, Z Jennings-Barnett 6, R Parris 6 — Z Lewis 6, A Simons 6, M Simmons 6 — J Hardtman 6, C Darrell 6 (sub: Q Simmons, 75), J Johnson 5. Booked: Hardtman.

PHC (4-3-3): Q Hunt 7 — D Usher 6, N Griffiths 6, J Bather (sub: K Bean, 88), D Smith-Lightbourne — S Burrows (sub: K Abraham, 55 6) A Astwood (sub: D Wainwright, 68, 5) — C Eve (sub: J Ebbin, 88), E Russell 7, J Sealey 6 (sub: Z Lee, 55 5). Substitutes not used: R Woodley Smith. Booked: Burrows, Eve.

Referee: D Jackson.