Young Men’s Social Club 1 Somerset Trojans 6

Justin Donawa fired in four goals as Somerset Trojans picked up their first league victory of the season over Young Men’s Social Club at blustery Police Field yesterday.

Before the game a moment of silence was observed to commemorate Social Club legend Fred “Pinks” Lewis, who passed recently.

Trojans came out quickly from kick-off, pressing their opponents high up the pitch and forcing a turnover within one minute that nearly resulted in them open the scoring.

Social defender Anelke McFarlane played a hospital pass back to Brighton Swan Jr, whose attempted clearance was charged down by Trojans winger Keyni Mills. Mills played simply to Donawa, whose effort was blocked by the retreating Swan Jr, who eventually cleared out of danger properly.

Jaz Ratteray-Smith nearly returned the favour moments later as his kick was intercepted by the returning captain Ryan Parris, whose effort deflected off Ratteray-Smith into Kimshun Smith. He clipped inside for Zeiko Lewis, who struck wide from near the penalty spot.

Social Club continued to press for an early breakthrough but a combination of poor cohesion and lack of quality deserted them from finding that goal.

Instead, Somerset showed menace on nearly every attack and they should have opened the scoring on seven minutes when Michari Tear-DeLeon drifted into space and was found by Mills. The left back then picked out the underlap of Jadan Ratteray-Smith. The captain fired an effort towards the far corner, which was saved by Social keeper Chiquon Smith. Donawa should have done better with the rebound, but Smith did really well to keep his balance and claw it away.

Trojans had seized control by the time Zico Saltus-Seymour pounced on a loose ball from Tirrell Woodley and squared for Jadan Ratteray-Smith to finish but the captain saw his effort squirm just wide.

Trojans opened the scoring on 26 minutes. Jadan Ratteray-Smith drifted a corner in from the left and Tear-DeLeon timed his run and jump perfectly amid a crowd of Social Club defenders to power a header into the goal from close range.

Social Club valiantly continued to push, but struggled to get their shape and spacing right as captain Parris often drifted forward from his holding midfield role. Spaces started to open up for Trojans to exploit, but instead they were pegged back on the counter attack.

Malique Wilson pounced on poor footwork by Trojans keeper Kyjuan Symonds and Lewis saw his effort blocked from the resulting corner. From that he utilised the swirling wind to brilliant effect by whipping it straight through the plethora of bodies near the six-yard box, into the far post.

Trojans responded magnificently from the kick off with play eventually switched to Tear-DeLeon, who clipped over the top for Donawa to beat McFarlane and finish with aplomb into the far post.

Social Club tried to get back into the game thereafter but their defensive line was being exploited. Tear-DeLeon played another pass over the top of their disjointed defence and Donawa was happy to make it 3-1 just before the break.

Donawa’s standout day got even better when he turned provider for Trojans’ fourth goal straight from the second-half kick-off. He beat Social defender Jah-Nai Smith with fast feet and struck an effort that was saved by Smith, before they recycled to the opposite side where Jadan Ratteray-Smith fired into the bottom corner.

Donawa would complete his hat-trick nine minutes into the second half with his best finish of the game from about 20 yards out before adding his fourth two minutes later to complete the rout for Trojans.

The visitors showed mercy to their downbeat opponents for the remaining 30 minutes, keeping the ball comfortably without allowing anything to penetrate their reasonably solid back line.

Scorers

Young Men’s Social Club: Lewis 32

Somerset Trojans: Tear-DeLeon 26; Donawa 34, 37, 54, 56; Jadan Ratteray-Smith 46

TEAMS

Young Men’s Social Club: C Smith, J Johnson, Z Lewis, A Matthews, J Smith, K Smith, B Swan Jr, M Wilson, T Woodley, R Parris, A McFarlane. Substitutes: J Hylton, E Mensah, Q Simmons, A Wilson, E Lewis, Z Jennings-Barnett, D Simons.

Somerset Trojans: K Symonds, Jaz Ratteray-Smith, J Donawa, E Shakir, K Mills, M Tear-DeLeon, Kam McNeil, Z Saltus-Seymour, M Joell, J Corday. Substitutes: D Taylor, R Curtis, T Burgess, J Simmons, J Shields, K Mallory, D Swan, C Durham, V Wall-Brown.

Referee: N Nyron (Trinidad and Tobago).