Devonshire Colts 3

Hamilton Parish 0

Nigel Burgess may have single-handedly consigned his team to relegation.

The Hamilton Parish goalkeeper made three awful mistakes yesterday against Devonshire Colts, and his side were punished heavily for them.

Even though Southampton Rangers also lost, Parish are three points adrift of safety, and there are just two games remaining.

This was a game they simply had to win, but Burgess and his team-mates never came close.

Colts midfielder Marco Piper opened the scoring early on when Burgess spilled a shot from McQuinn Burch, and Darren Williams doubled his side's lead early into the second half when his shot went straight through Burgess' hands.

The Parish goalkeeper's misery was complete when he then bundled Piper over in a clumsy attempt to get a ball bouncing around in the box and conceded a penalty, which Sean Perinchief then dispatched with aplomb.

And it could have been even worse for Parish with Colts squandering a host of chances, including three in the final five minutes with Ryan Purnell, Andre Famous and Mikre Pace all missing gilt-edged chances to increase their side's lead.

In contrast Parish managed just two efforts on goal, and striker Jamie Smith actually put the ball in the net on one of those occasions, but as with Shayne Hollis' second half effort, which hit the post, Smith was ruled offside.

Other than that the visiting team were as impotent in attack as they were in defence, and while Burgess may grab the headlines for his mistakes, his defenders were equally as culpable.

There is no commanding voice in the Parish backline, and little discpline, so the likes of Robert Somner and Romone Smith are constantly caught out of position, leaving their team-mates to scramble madly to cover for them.

Going forward Parish proved little better, and while Kaiya Darrell and Smith did plenty of running, there was little, if any end product.

Their biggest attacking threat came from Burgess' long, raking kicks from defence, but even when Smith flicked the ball, there was no-one running through to take advantage of the situation.

If Parish put as much effort into their football as they do into arguing amongst themselves at half time, and during the game, they would be a decent team.

But they aren't, and they don't, and it's going to take a minor miracle for them to survive this season.

Colts meanwhile will be feeling pretty secure in their position, but they face tough matches against Dandy Town and Boulevard in the next two weeks. Even so, a point from those matches should be enough to keep them up.

Devonshire Colts: J.Wade, J Butterfield, E.Wilkin, T.Foote, C.Durham, M.Burch, S.Perinchief, M.Piper (N.Bascome, 78), C.Trott (M.Pace, 75), D.Williams (A.Famous, 67). R.Purnell.

Substitutes not used: V.Lambe, S.Burgess, Q.Jones, B.Robinson.

Goals: Piper 16, Williams 52, Perinchief (pen) 76.

Hamilton Parish: N.Burgess, R.Richardson, R.Somner (K.Hollis, 67), R.Smith, C.Hansey, K.Cann, S.Hollis, O.Allen (C.Hill, 57), K.Darrell, C.Caisey, J.Smith (D.Simmons, 86).

Substitutes not used: R.Simmons, A.Hill, R.Warner.

Yellow cards: Williams (Colts).

Referee: A Francis.

Man of the match: M.Burch (Colts).

PHC 2

Somerset Eagles 1

Bermuda international Stephen Astwood scored a brace at Southampton Oval to give PHC Zebras a 2-1 win over mid-table Somerset Eagles.

Eagles' scorer was former North Village midfieler Keishen Bean.