Roger Lee and Roger Brangman fired Somerset Eagles to victory over St George's Colts at Somerset Cricket Club last night.

The win took Kenny Thompson's side two-points clear of St David's at the top of the First Division, and dealt a body-blow to Colts' own promotion hopes.

Eagles have a game in hand on both their closest rivals, and look like they are hitting form at just the right time.

They didn't make things easy for themselves however, and were fortunate to come away with three points after Colts' striker Mackie Crane had a goal harshly disallowed for hand ball.

St George's must be wondering what they have to do to get a break, given that a game which was supposed to take place on a Sunday afternoon at Wellington Oval, effectively became an away game on a Wednesday night at the other end of the Island.

Had this game been played on January 4 as originally planned they would have been able to call on the services of goalkeeper Freddy Hall. Unfortunately they couldn't, and his replacement Shunte Evens had a miserable night in goal.

His defence weren't much help either, and while Colts might justifiably claim some mitigating circumstances, last night Eagles were just better.

Lee, Troy Tucker, and Darin Dowling tore Colts apart at will during the first hour in which they should have killed the game off completely.

And yet it was Colts who should have taken the lead after just two minutes. Crane cut in from the left and delivered a wicked cross which Marcus Anderson somehow managed to turn over from five yards out.

Things went from bad to worse for Colts. First Evens got in a tangle with defender Machael Paynter and dropped a corner from Lee into the goal, and then the entire side went to sleep as Brangman picked up a quick free-kick just outside the area and rifled the ball in for the second.

And Tucker should have put the game beyond doubt early into the second half when he stole in unmarked from a Lee corner and headed over.

Colts gradually got back into it as the game wore on, and Eagles' FA Cup exursions started to tell as they tired.

Crane grabbed a goal back just after the hour mark, and thought he had equalised when he beat Eagles defender Khaleel Brunson to a long ball, only to be booked instead for what was a marginal hand ball decision.

In the end Eagles just hung on for the win which gives them a slight advantage in the race for the Premier League.

"The team have played with a tremendous amount of character all season," said coach Kenny Thompson. "They started to get tired after their efforts on Sunday, but they battled hard and I'm very proud of them."

St George's Colts ¿ S Evens, M Paynter, P Anderson, M Hodsoll, B Phipps (N Paynter, 57), J Hayward, J Fogo, R Basden, R Smith (Troy Hall Jr, 72), M Crane, M Anderson (D Demon, 52). Subs not used: Troy Hall, P Stamp, M Simmons. Booked Crane

Somerset Eagles: M Dill, K Brunson, T Fubler (J Bather, 33), S Danvers, A Lambert, R Brangman, R Lee (W Tucker, 87), S Morrisey, D Dowling (G Logie, 70), A Hunter, T Tucker. Subs not used: E Trott, M Ming. Booked Bather.

Man of the match: S Morrisey

Referee: G O'Brien