North Village and PHC moved up the Premier Division standings from mid-table with good wins yesterday, as leaders Dandy Town had their game with Devonshire Colts postponed because of a waterlogged pitch at St John’s Field.

Somerset Trojans, the league champions, were shown little respect at home by PHC whose 6-1 win was their biggest of the season.

Casey Castle laid the foundation with a first half hat-trick while Julian Carpenter, Shakir Smith and Cecoy Robinson also added to the Somerset misery. The loss leaves them sixth on eleven points from nine games, the only team to have completed their first half schedule.

“We didn’t think it was going to be this easy today but it was a good showing for us,” Cecoy Robinson, the PHC captain, said. “We are picking up momentum, and so we just have to keep going and working at it.

“It’s falling for us right now. At the beginning of the season we were getting the chances but we weren’t able to put them away but now we are able to so it’s falling for us right now.”

Robinson praised Castle for his three goals in the first half.

“Casey Castle has actually been pretty good for us since he started playing straight down the middle,” Robinson said. “Kudos to him, he deserved it, and is playing very well right now.”

Robin Hood, second in the standings, missed a good opportunity to draw level with Town, and now have Village and PHC breathing down their neck.

Village edged Robin Hood 3-2 to climb into fourth place, level on 13 points with Colts and just three behind Hood.

“We were trying to get back into the game but today was a difficult day for us,” Kyle Lightbourne, the Hood coach, said.

Hood were 2-0 down in the first half after Jason Lee and Keston Lewis netted for Village at Bernard Park.

However, a goal just before the break by Lejuan Simmons kept it close for Hood going into the second half, when Village went 3-1 up with a second goal from Lewis. Shaun Brown netted a late consolation effort for Hood who slumped to only their second loss in the league.

“It’s not the end of the world, we can definitely play better,” Lightbourne said. “The conditions probably helped Village’s more technical players and we never got going.

“We play PHC in our next game, and it seems they have hit form.

“I expect Village to be in the top four this year, they just had a sluggish start this season.

“For us we have 16 points and in the second half if we get another 16 points I’ll be delighted with that. We have to respect that today there was a winner and a loser.”

Village bounced back from their first league loss to Devonshire Cougars last weekend to slow Robin Hood’s title push. Just three points now separate the teams.

“We’re still coming together as a team, now hopefully the confidence carries over as we have the Friendship next weekend and then we have a big league match with Dandy Town on the 20th,” Todd, the Village coach, said.

“As we’re starting to find our feet and play good football, the potential is there for this team to hit a good stride.

“We’re hoping to carry it into Christmas. Right now we’ll focus on Southampton Rangers in the Friendship Trophy.”

The other two matches played involved the bottom four teams, with Southampton Rangers drawing 1-1 with Hamilton Parish at Wellington Oval to remain four points ahead of eighth-place Boulevard, who drew 0-0 with Devonshire Cougars.