Wolves 1 Southampton 3 Just four days after suffering their first league loss to Wolves in a 1-0 First Division setback at Devonshire Rec., Southampton Rangers last night tasted sweet revenge with this comfortable two-goal victory at St. John's field.

Although the quality of this Friendship Trophy opener was spoiled by the rain and a treacherous pitch, Southampton made better use of the atrocious conditions and thoroughly deserved the win.

They struck early with their top goal scorer from last season forward Rohaan Simons brilliantly finishing off a cross by skipper Sheridan Ming with a scissors kick from close in that gave goalkeeper Hewvonne Brown no chance whatsoever after just five minutes.

From that moment on Southampton never looked back and forced their opponents to play catch up soccer for the rest of the evening.

They put added pressure on Wolves after 35 minutes when Ming received a ball from a corner by Travis Wilkinson and hammered the ball home from just inside of the penalty box to make the score 2-0.

Wolves continued to display a lot of fight and determination, but with a well composed Southampton defence marshalled well by centerbacks Donnie Charles and Pernell Brangman they were rarely allowed to get within scoring range.

Their best chance came after 20 minutes when Nathan Webb's angled shot from 15 yards forced goalkeeper Randy Darrell to dive full length and tip around the post for a corner.

With the conditions worsening, after 55 minutes referee George O'Brien indicated his intention of abandoning the game. But after consulting his linesman (with Southampton angrily protesting) the decision was made to continue.

Southampton reacted by raising their tempo and shortly afterwards they took a 3-0 lead when Charles rose above the defence to smartly head home a corner by Rohaan Simons. However, Wolves were not floored completely by the 58th minute goal.

Spearheaded by Peter Sampson, Ellington Weldon and the tough Webb, they pinned down the Southampton defence during impressive counter attacks and their reward for fighting back came after 68 minutes when Webb scored from a cross by Sampson.

Craig Darrell and Simons followed up by putting chances just wide for Southampton, but Wolves kept competitive with Nakia Smith and Keemo Smith forcing goalkeeper Darrell to make fine saves at the end.

Wolves: H.Brown; T.Trott, T.Davis, L.Hypolite, N.Smith (M.Dill, 65 min); A.Thomas (S.Berkeley, 88 min), P.Sampson, K.Smith; N.Smith, N.Webb, E.Weldon.

Southampton: R.Darrell; A.Tucker, D.Charles, P.Brangman, S.Simmons; C.Simmons, C.Darrell (L.Bean, 80 min), V.Ball; R.Simons, S.Ming, T.Wilkinson (N.Burrows, 73 min).

Referee: George O'Brien Men of the match: Peter Sampson (Wolves), Donnie Charles (Southampton).

The heavy downpour, which almost forced the abandonment of the opening match, left the pitch too dangerous to allow last night's second match between North Village and Somerset Trojans to go ahead.

The match will now be rescheduled by the Bermuda Football Association.

Officials will be hoping for dry conditions today to allow another scheduled double-header to go ahead tonight at the same venue.

This one will involve MR Onions and Paget in a second FA Cup replay at 7.00 and Social Club and Prospect in a make-up Second Division encounter at 9.00.

Already four other Commercial League teams, champions BAA Wanderers, Robin Hood, St. George's All-Stars and Belco, are through to the third round of the competition and Onions will be hoping to make it five teams from that league in the last 16 games which will also involve the First Division teams.

The winners of the Onions-Paget match will meet struggling First Division team, Devonshire Cougars in the next round on December 6. No doubt Paget cannot afford to look that far ahead, as their Commercial opponents have already made things tough for them.

Tonight's 9.00 match will see Social Club taking on Prospect in a make-up league match. At stake for Social Club will be top spot in the Second Division at the expense of PHC.

The Bluebirds, attempting to return to the First Division after a long absence, are the only unbeaten team in the division, having recently handed the Zebras their first loss.

League action resumes on Friday night at Devonshire in a busy week of night action as Paget are again in action in the 7.00 opener against PHC while the feature match sees Devonshire Cougars playing Devonshire Colts.