Boulevard 1 Hamilton Parish 0

Boulevard bounced back from their Dudley Eve final disappointment with a hard-fought victory over Hamilton Parish in the Friendship Trophy, courtesy of a strike from Takeyhi Walker.

The Blazers skipper finished off a neat pull-back from midfielder Dion Stovell who pounced on an sloppy exchange of passes between Hot Peppers goalkeeper Nigel Burgess and one of his defenders midway through the second half at Devonshire Rec. yesterday.

Burgess partly redeemed himself for his part in the mix-up with a superb diving save from Ajani Gibbons' penalty kick in the final few minutes following Calvin Hansey's foul on Stovell.

"A lapse of concentration cost us today," bemoaned Parish coach Marvin Belboda. "I thought we were the better team in the first half and nullified their strike force. Our focus remains on our Premier Division survival but I'm disappointed because I felt Blazers were there for the taking on the back of their Dudley Eve final defeat. We had them where we wanted them but let ourselves down."

Goalscorer Walker said Blazers were hungry to return to winning ways following their penalty shoot-out heartbreak against Dandy Town last week.

"It wasn't difficult to pick ourselves up after the Dudley Eve defeat and we were really hungry to get a victory," he said. "Parish made it difficult for us especially in the first half when we just couldn't find our rhythm.

"But in the second period I thought we stepped things up and started to play a bit of our football although we were not at our best. It was important we redeemed ourselves after our cup final loss and we did just that with this win."

Chances were few and far between during the first period with Kaiya Darrell coming the closest to breaking the deadlock with a powerful header from a corner kick, which flew over the crossbar.

After the break substitute Chae Simmons had two bites at the cherry to give Blazers the lead but saw 'keeper Burgess foil his first effort and his rebound diverted over the bar via the head of a Parish defender.

Boulevard: A.Jjombwe, J.Paynt, H.Burrows, R.Trott, A.Gibbons, P.Parsons (C.Simmons 45 mins), M.Parsons, R.Burgess (J.Samuels 75 mins), W.Place, T.Walker, D.Stovell

Subs: R.Bean, D.Taylor, Z.Hendrickson, S.Robinson, M.Gibbons

Hamilton Parish: N.Burgess, T.Webb, M.Winston (R.Evans 55 mins), D.Smith, C.Hansey, C.Caisey (O.Allen 84 mins) N.Robinson, R.Smith, K.Darrell, N.Smith, J.Smith

Subs: G.Gibbons, R.Somner, A.Ebbin, L.Butterfield, N.Swan

Referee: Alton Reid

Yellow cards: N.Robinson (Parish), T.Webb (Parish)

Match commissioner: V.Brown

Man-of-the-match: D.Stovell (Boulevard)