PHC 2 X-Roads 1

PHC moved to the summit of the Premier Division on goal difference after a hard-fought victory over X-Roads at PHC Field on Sunday.

Enrique Russell’s nineteenth-minute strike and an own goal by Seth Somner in the 41st minute secured the three points for Cecoy Robinson’s side. Danavon Thompson pulled one back for X-Roads just after half time.

PHC, who have picked up a record 13 league titles, are on the same number of points as Devonshire Colts, who have a game in hand.

Robinson was delighted to get some retribution for the 3-0 defeat inflicted upon his side by X-Roads at the beginning of the season.

“It was a good result for us today and a little bit of redemption for us,” Robinson told The Royal Gazette.

“We lost to them in the first half of the season, so today we knew we had to dig deep. We knew we couldn’t take them for granted.

“They fought hard and pushed us to the limit but we got the three points and that’s what matters for us.

“It was a good game of football. We got two early goals and then they scored just after the half, then tried to put on some pressure. We showed a good bit of resilience today, which is nice to see. We didn’t cave into the pressure and we were able to get the result today.”

With seven matches left, Robinson is keeping his fingers crossed that things work out in their favour.

“We’re just taking one game at a time, we'll keep pushing, keep fighting and hopefully the chips fall in our field,” he said.

“The key is really focusing on ourselves and doing what we did today, fighting through the adversity and sticking together as a unit.

“I think that’s where we need to be or continue to be better and continue to grow. If we stick together then we’ll be fine, the results will take care of themselves.”

Farid El Karfa, coach of X-Roads, whose side dominated the second half, felt that the result was not a true indicator of how his team played.

“To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed because the result does not reflect our performance,” he said.

“In no way does it reflect the way we played and by no means does it reflect the way we performed attacking-wise, mentality-wise and defensive-wise.

“I really thought the score today was disappointing as we didn’t deserve to lose today for sure.

“To be honest, we lost it early in the match when we conceded two easy goals. Between bad luck and a little bit of loss of focus for a second or two, then we got punished.

“But otherwise, our defensive performance was excellent, so was the midfield and front line. We played the best football I’ve seen from my team so far.

“I hope this is the starting point for us going back into our winning game. The performance was very promising and this is going to be our standard now to make sure that we go back to winning again.”

Russell won the free kick which led to him scoring his tenth league goal of the season. Harlem Bean-Fox’s effort was initially cleared but brought back into the box by Sakari Lewis, with the ball falling invitingly for Jaylon Bather. His shot at goal was pushed back into play by Kamran Harvey and Russell was on hand to slice it into the net.

Amaury Majors booked Russell for his goal celebration, which involved lifting his top to reveal the message “Marco Matters” in memory of former PHC captain Marco Warren, who died in May 2023.

Just when X-Roads were fighting for an equaliser, Seth Somner scored an own goal. Haile Eve came up with a cross, which Harvey punched, but the ball came off Somner’s chest to beat his goalkeeper.

Three minutes after the break Bather’s header was pushed over for a corner by Harvey as PHC searched for a third goal.

X-Roads kept themselves within reach when Aaron Spencer delivered the ball into the box for Thompson to tuck it in at the back post.

De-Andre Smith-Lightbourne could have added a third for PHC. The defender was given a lot of space to run with the ball into the penalty area but blasted his effort over.

In the 72nd minute Thompson was denied by some great goalkeeping from Quinaceo Hunt, who came up with a stop to deny the Bermuda forward.

SCORERS

PHC: Russell 21, Somner og 41

X-Roads: Thompson 50

TEAMS

PHC (4-3-3): Q Hunt 6 — D Usher 6, S Lewis 6 (sub: A Nelson, 74), J Bather 6, D Smith-Lightbourne 6 — D Lodge 6, E Joseph 6, T Showers 6 (sub: J Sealey, 74) — H Eve 6 (sub: R Woodley-Smith, 86), E Russell 7, H Bean-Fox 6 (sub: K Abraham, 46min 6). Substitutes not used: J Hassell, J Ebbin, M Davis. Booked: Russell, Abraham

X-Roads (4-3-3): K Harvey 6 — T Daniels 6, C Smith 6, S Somner 6 (sub: T Dill, 46 5), A Johnston 6 — K Douglas 6 (sub: J Sousa, 90), J Bean 6, A Spencer 6 — K Richardson 6 (sub: J Lottimore, 70 5), D Thompson 7, P Simons 6. Substitutes notused: S McKittrick, A Darrell, C Smith. Booked: Douglas, Spencer

Referee: A Majors.