North Village 7 PHC Zebras 3

There was very little doubt, if any, as to which side was best at the National Sports Centre (NSC) yesterday where Keishen Bean and Ralph Bean shared six goals between them to help North Village inflict the heaviest defeat ever in a Friendship Trophy final on league champions PHC Zebras.

The two Rams forwards feasted on a porous Zebras defence to earn redemption for their team's 3-2 loss to the same opponents in the 2001-02 Friendship final. And the manner in which they wreaked havoc in front of the uprights was nothing shy of clinical.

Yesterday's win was Village's first over Zebras in this particular final and eighth overall. It also bettered the previous record for the most goals scored in a Friendship final (seven) shared between PHC and St.George's Colts, the latter coming out 4-3 losers at the former PHC Stadium in 1986-87.

Only Somerset Trojans and PHC have managed more wins (nine) than Village in the Friendship, though Rams will forever have the distinction of being the competition's inaugural winners in 1965-66.

During the recently concluded league campaign, Zebras conceded only 12 goals all season. Yesterday they leaked over half of that amount after committing what coach Kyle Lightbourne later termed as a plethora of "schoolboy" mistakes at the rear.

Credit to Village, though, because whenever opportunity came knocking they were able to grab their chances with both hands and cash in with both lethal precision and great regularity.

"I think this was one of the better games I've seen all season," commented victorious Village coach Elliott Jennings. "These guys can play."

Rams pounced on Zebras early and when skipper Ralph Bean finished off a superb solo effort to put his team up 4-2 in the 45th minute, the match as a contest was virtually over.

"We knew we were coming up against the league champions who have done well all season," Jennings said. "I told my players we had to score first and set the tempo and make PHC respect us."

As the final scoreline suggests, Village had no problem achieving their objective.

"I think we showed PHC who are the better team on the Island today - and that is North Village," Village's hat-trick hero Keishen Bean declared.

Rams' win also threw cold water on PHC's bid for a first Triple Crown in nearly four decades.

"That is probably one of the hardest things to achieve in local football, the Triple Crown," lamented Lightbourne. "We just weren't at the races today.

"They bossed the midfield and on the day they were ten times better than us and deserved to win. They scored more goals than us and we conceded goals after committing school boy errors - stuff we haven't been doing all season.

"Obviously I'm disappointed that we didn't win because everybody wants to win finals. But congratulations to Elliott and the rest of the Village gang, they deserved it most."

Village scored the first of six first-half goals when Keishen Bean slotted past PHC goalie Jay Smith after midfielder Sammy Degraff had provided all of the leg work with a defence-splitting pass in the box.

Yet hardly before the dust had settled PHC were back on even terms when Cecoy Robinson fired home Dennis Russell's cross in the middle to throw this cup final wide open.

PHC's joy, though, would be short-lived as Village took only 30 seconds to regain the lead after Degraff blew past a flat-footed Zebras defence and beat the keeper with a low drive at the near post.

But Zebras again came roaring back, this time Robinson returning the favour to Russell who chipped the ball over the onrushing Jason Williams to add parity to the score.

Both teams struggled to cope with the long ball all afternoon and so it was really no surprise when Dekae Tankard's pass up the middle was gobbled up by Keishen Bean who dribbled unopposed for several yards before firing past Smith to restore Village's lead.

Village then began to make things really ugly for PHC as skipper Bean capitalised on a brilliant solo run reminiscent of the days when his father once wore the number seven jersey for the 'Red Army'.

The Rams leader then grabbed a second goal from the penalty spot early in the second half after Degraff was sent crashing to the ground inside the box before namesake Keishen Bean completed his hat-trick four minutes later as Village continued to have things all their way.

By now Zebras had been reduced to playing for pride but were rewarded when Omar Shakir pulled one back with a 20-yard blast that flew into the back of the net.

But by then the damage had long been done and it was Village who would have the final say seconds later as skipper Bean completed his treble to emphatically punctuate his team's record-breaking performance.

North Village: J.Williams, R.Wilson, K.Dill, D.Ewards, D.Tankard, J.Boyles (M.Godley, 80 mins), J.Jennings, D.Degraff, K.Bean, S.Hollis (V.Tankard, 79 mins), R.Bean (capt).

PHC: J.Smith, M.Waldron, K.Richards, O.Shakir, C.Dowling (A.Grant, 62 mins), J.Ball, J.Sealey (D.Outerbrdige, 50 mins), C.Furbert (capt), D.Russell, R.Lightbourne, C.Robinson (C.Castle, 70 mins).

Yellow cards: R.Wilson, D.Tankard, J.Jennings, K.Bean (Village)

Men of the match: R.Bean/K.Bean (Village); C.Robinson (PHC).

Referee: George O'Brien jr.