North Village 1

Dandy Town 2

Dandy Town looked every inch the defending Premier Division champions during their victory over title contenders North Village at Bernard Park yesterday. The match appeared to be heading for a draw until the late intervention of Raymond Beach who snatched a last gasp winner for his second goal of the game.

While his fourth minute opener was a true poacher's finish, Beach's second goal had a fair share of good fortune about it.

With just minutes left on the clock, substitute Ricco Wells tried a speculative shot from the edge of the Village box which took a wicked deflection off Beach's chest to wrong-foot goalkeeper Jason Williams and skid low into the net.

A disjointed looking Village had fought their way back into the game through Kiawon Dill with a volley after Hornets keeper Treadwell Gibbons jr had splilled a corner kick on the stroke of half-time.

But Hornets continued to dominate after the break and should have restored their lead midway through the half when Lashun Dill somehow headed over the bar from just a few yards out.

A jubiliant Hornets coach, Jomar Wilkinson, praised his team for passing their first 'real test' of the season.

"This win will be a huge confidence boost for us," he said. "We knew it was going to be a war and in the end our perseverance paid off. To be honest, I thought we should have won by a greater margin and looked the better team.

"What pleased me most was that it was a real team performance. There was no individual magic, instead all of our players stuck to their task and worked for each other.

"Hopefully this win can be a milestone for us because it's not easy to come to Bernard Park and pick up a win."

North Village: J. Williams, D.Tankard, S.Fubler, K.Dill, T.Manders, S.DeGraff, J.Jennings (J.Boyles, 73), K.Dill, P.Smith, J.Lee, R.Bean

Substitutes not used: A.Lee, S.Jennings, K.Arruda, J.Sousa

Goals: Dill, 44

Dandy Town: T.Gibbons jr, F.Frankson, G.Dyer, K.Tucker (T.Daniels, 60), J.Butterfield (S.DeShields, 66), J.Peniston, J.Swan, D.Ming, L.Tucker (R.Wells, 80), L.Dill, R.Beach

Substitutes not used: R.Saltus

Yellow cards: Ming

Goals: Beach 44, 89

Man-of-the-match: Ming