Southampton Rangers 2

North Village 0

Southampton Rangers’ players left Bernard Park with big smiles and their heads held high after finally finding the net after 292 minutes of football to pick up their first win of the season.

Midfielder Jahkai Dyer netted midway through the first half and striker Khalil Symonds added the second early in the second as Rangers earned a deserved victory after three straight defeats.

In doing so, they sent previously in-form North Village crashing to their first defeat of the campaign.

Maurice Lowe, the Rangers coach, was relieved at the final whistle as the three points moved his team off the bottom of the Premier Division standings.

“Ecstatic, we’re very happy with the result of the game and very happy with the performance — it was our first shut-out so we did a really good job defensively,” said Lowe, who praised his team’s work rate in the first half.

“We scored our first goals of the season and just really worked hard for one another,” he said. “The break we had because of the storms has probably been a blessing for us. We’ve been able to regroup and work hard, though we have even more injuries than previously.

“Village are always a tough team and you don’t plan on coming here and getting easy points off North Village, but we had to first believe in ourselves and with that belief we were able to turn it into a tangible three points.

“[This win] gives us some encouragement as to our processes and how some of our processes have been able to bring us rewards.”

Lowe recognises that one win does not make a season, but the confidence was evident in the team throughout the match and even more so after the goals.

“It’s still early days and we want to stay grounded but we’re going to have fun and celebrate this victory definitely, then come back to the training ground and put in more hard work so that we can have this feeling again,” he said.

Rangers had a couple of good opportunities to break the deadlock early in the first half, when Jesse Seymour, captain for the day in the absence of the injured McQuinn Burch, sidefooted over from just inside the box after Keedai Astwood sent in a cross from the right.

Then, after Tyrell Burgess curled a free-kick just wide of the near post for Village, Rangers went close again when Symonds took a short pass into the box and drove his effort towards the roof of the net before Troy Hall tipped the effort over the bar.

Hall could not deny Rangers — and Dyer — their first goal of the season when a perfect pass by Symonds sent Dyer into the box before he kept his composure and slipped a low shot past Hall.

Rangers had been conceding goals at a rate of three a game but Cory Richardson was having a relatively quiet first half as his team did most of the attacking. Opposing goalkeeper Hall had to be alert to keep the score close at the half when Jahkai Hill overlapped from right-back and sent in a high cross to the far post, which looked headed for the far top corner before Hall scrambled back and tipped the ball over.

Village continued to look short of ideas in attack early in the second half as Jahron Dickinson came on for Demetri Daniels early in the half, only to see Rangers score a second goal in the 58th minute when they penetrated on the left side of the box and Symonds seized on a half chance to drive his shot into the near top corner.

Village started to play some of their best football after that as late pressure kept the game close.

It was not Village’s day but Rangers, even without the suspended Vernon Perinchief in midfield, proved that hard work and belief can reap rewards.