North Village 3 PHC Zebras 1

North Village Rams made sure they remained in the Premier Division title hunt with a vital victory over PHC Zebras at Bernard Park yesterday.

Second-place Village, who are embroiled in a three-horse race for the championship with league leaders Dandy Town and Somerset Trojans, scored goals from Jahquan Smith-DeShields, Pierre Smith and Tyrell Burgess.

Cecoy Robinson, the PHC captain, struck a late consolation goal for the visiting side.

Ralph Bean, the Village coach, reiterated the importance of not worrying about the results of their title rivals as the race intensifies with just two league matches of the season remaining.

“I’ve already told the players not to worry about how anyone else is doing,” Bean said. “If I didn’t know the other teams’ results until the end of the season, it wouldn’t matter to me one bit.

“We’re putting together a little run of form and things are looking good for us right now.”

Bean believed Village were good value for their second successive victory but admitted that PHC had made life difficult for them at times.

“Whenever we play PHC we know it’s going to be an intense game as they’re a physical team. They seem to give us more trouble at home than when we play up the road [at the Southampton Oval].

“I thought we deserved the win although we started off a little bit slow and you could see that [PHC] were motivated for the game.

“I think the first goal neutralised the game and the second goal really put us on the front foot.”

Village made a surprisingly slow start to the match with PHC appearing the more determined of the two teams during the opening exchanges.

However, despite their superior possession, PHC failed to create much in the way of scoring chances and fell behind in the 41st minute when the increasingly impressive Jahquan Smith-DeShields held off the attentions of defender Rakeem DeShields before guiding the ball home.

Village improved after the break and nearly doubled their advantage when defender Tyrell Burgess struck a curling free kick from just outside the box from a central position, which Malachi Jones, the PHC goalkeeper, did well to tip over the bar.

On the hour mark Village opened up a two-goal cushion when Jonathan Briers’s pinpoint right wing cross was met by Pierre Smith with diving header that looped over Jones’s outstretched hand.

Another flying header, this time from Burgess on 73 minutes, made it three-nil — a scoreline that slightly flattered the hosts — after a well-taken free kick from Keishen Bean, the Village substitute.

To their credit PHC continued to take the game to the home side with Lonnie Bascome heading over the bar from a free kick by Robinson, who then fired a shot into the side netting from a tight angle.

Robinson pulled a goal back on 88 minutes when he smashed home a low shot after being released with a probing pass from DeShields, who was afforded too much to space to bring the ball out of defence and into a dangerous position.

Village still looked like scoring, though, with David Hunt, a second half substitute, forcing a good save from the legs of Jones, who continues to perform the duties of makeshift goalkeeper, late on.