Dandy Town 1 North Village 3

A brace by skipper Ralph Bean jr and a lone strike from Nakia Smith guided defending Friendship Trophy champions North Village to a 3-1 victory over Dandy Town at Somerset Cricket Club yesterday.

Antwan Russell scored Town's only goal from the penalty spot.

Showing why he is regarded as one of Bermuda's finest marksmen, Bean produced a masterful display of finishing as he scored twice in the first 30 minutes to bring the Dudley Eve champions crashing back down to earth.

He pounced as early as the 12th minute when he was left unmarked outside the box and let fly a laser-like shot that crashed onto the underside of Mikkail Crockwell's crossbar and back into the roof of the net.

And if the first strike didn't satisfy the travelling North Village fans, Bean then latched onto the ball after some enterprising work down the right flank by Taurean Manders and Dez Simons which resulted in a delicate cross floated to the top of the Hornets area.

Bean positioned himself exactly where he needed to be and deftly flicked his header back post past an outstretched Crockwell and into the net.

Town were sure to make a fight of the match and were justly awarded a penalty when Antwan Russell was bought down inside the box within three minutes of going two down, referee Anthony Mouchette having no choice but to award the spot kick.

Russell put his effort to Calvin Augustus' left to give Hornets some life before half-time.

With both sides looking for the goal that would make or break their respective cup aspirations, it was up to substitute Nakia Smith to stroke home the telling blow in the 88th minute to end the contest.

Smith was the recipient of a low-driven cross from Manders and calmly slotted his effort home from close range, leaving the final score 3-1 to the champions who move onto the semi-finals.

"It was a hard fought match, they are always tough when we play them, but it was more special considering that they are riding high right now so it feels good," said Bean.

"Goals are always a good way to relax a team, and that was the remedy to get us comfortable in what we had to do.

"The two early ones put us on the front foot, and we didn't want to be chasing so it put us in stride.

"The Friendship is a knockout just like the FA, so you have to win. And this is a good start to the year for us.

"You can't talk too much about games like this, you just have to show up and put the work in to get what you want out of every match.

"You have no second chances and we took ours today."

Dandy Town: M.Crockwell, D.Signor, E.Signor, A.O'Brien( D.Ming), G. Butterfield, K. Goddard, S. Robinson, L.Dill (J.Dickinson), R. Beach, H. Wolffe, A. Russell.

North Village: C.Augustus, K.Dill, D.Edwards, D.Simons (J.Peniston), D.Tankard, P.Smith (V.Minors), J.Jennings, S.Degraffe, T.Manders, R.Bean, D.Blyden (N.Smith)

Referee: A. Mouchette

Man of the Match: R.Bean jr