North Village 0 –Boulevard Blazers 1

Substitute Quadir Maynard struck a superb winner for Boulevard Blazers at North Village, who will look back ruefully at a host of missed chances.

Ralph Bean struck the crossbar; Sammy DeGraff squandered two one-on-one opportunities while player/coach Shaun Goater saw an effort well saved by goalkeeper Shejuan Swan.

But not even the most one-eyed Rams supporter could begrudge Blazers their win at Bernard Park yesterday after they executed their coach Andrew Bascome's game plan to perfection.

Compact and organised in the first period before becoming a touch more expansive after the break, Blazers managed to keep Village's attacking outlets subdued up until the final quarter of an hour when Rams finally stepped up their game.

By then the visitors had already taken the lead through youngster Maynard who hit a venomous shot from the edge of the 18 yard box to give 'keeper Jason Williams no chance.

"We talked about keeping it tight until half-time and we were pleased to be level at the break," said Bascome. "I made a few changes early in the second-half to make us more attacking and the changes worked well.

"We started to work it through the channels and our attacking midfielders began to see more of the ball. Beating Village is a great result for us."

Maynard's goal seemed to jar Village into life and the mere presence of Goater seemed to create some uncertainty in the Blazers' defence for the first time in the match.

Within the closing stages Rams had as many as four chances to pull level but failed to do so due through mixture of carelessness and good 'keeping by Swan.

Skipper DeGraff should have probably done better with both his opportunities, hitting his first chance straight at Swan, while lifting his second over the bar after being put through by a clever Goater flick.

Bean then saw his effort cannon off the woodwork and while 39-year-old Goater was the quickest to react he was unable to generate enough power in his left foot shot to trouble Swan.

Bascome admitted the introduction of Goater had given Blazers' back-line cause for concern. "Obviously when a player like Shaun comes on you're going to worried. We had to keep a real close eye on him as otherwise he would have punished us," he said.

North Village: J.Williams, J.Sousa (T.Fray, 45), R.Wilson, K.Dill, J.Briers, S.DeGraff, J.Boyles, R.Spence (V.Tankard, 38), J.Lee (Shaun Goater, 72), R.Bean Subs not used: Z.Hendrickson, Sergio Goater

Boulevard Blazers: S.Swan, M.Parsons, A.Gibbons, J.Samuels, H.Burrows, T.Walker, C.Simmons, M.Gibbons, N.Smith (Q.Maynard 55) K.Bean (A.Nelson, 55) R.Burgess (D.Bascome 80) Subs not used: D.Bell, N.Smith, M.Clemens, T.Wilson

Scorer: Q.Maynard 70.

Yellow cards: T.Walker, Q.Maynard (Blazers)

Referee: E.Holmes

Man-of-the-match: A.Gibbons (Blazers)