St David’s and Young Men’s Social Club both continue to set the pace in the First Division promotion race with their fourth straight wins yesterday.

St David’s made the short trip to Wellington Oval for the second straight weekend, this time defeating Hamilton Parish with a 2-1 victory.

However, it needed an eighth-minute opener from Parish’s Tariq Webb to jolt the First Division leaders who then scored twice in the space of two minutes early in the second half to turn the match around.

Kontaief Burton equalised for the visiting side in the 58th minute before Marcus Proctor scored the winner on the hour mark.

Young Men’s Social Club also fell behind to an early goal when BAA took an eleventh-minute lead through Jahkari Furbert at PHC Field. However, the home team equalised four minutes later through Clay Darrell whose hat-trick helped them outscore BAA 4-3 in an entertaining encounter between the third and fourth placed teams.

With the teams level, three goals in the space of four minutes midway through the first half opened the game up as Social Club took a 3-2 lead into the break. Raymond Burgess put them 2-1 up in the 24th minute before Darrell extended the lead in the 26th minute, only to see Furbert reduce the deficit with his second goal two minutes later.

Darrell completed his hat-trick two minutes into the second half when he scored with a low shot from ten yards. BAA pulled it back to 4-3 seventh minutes from time when Tyrell Burgess scored from a corner.

Darrell, who left Dandy Town two seasons ago to help his boyhood club achieve promotion back to the top division, is hoping to accomplish that goal this season as he looks to improve on the 20 goals he scored last term as the division’s top scorer.

“I’m looking for 25 to 30 goals, so I want to do a lot better,” Darrell said. “But I’m more worried about getting promoted, that’s my main focus.

“Social Club have been in the First Division for 29 years and I think it would be nice if we could get promoted. That would be history in the making and I want to be a part of that history.

“I’ve never seen it, I’ve heard all the stories about Social Club. To tell you the truth I never thought I would play for Social Club, but when I went 15 that was the first club that came to me, so I said ‘why not’. They helped me become the football player I am today. I understand my goals are important, but it’s not just me, it’s a team effort.”

St David’s and Social Club lead the division by five points over Southampton Rangers, one of last season’s relegated sides. Rangers needed two late goals from Ezekiel Stoneham to beat bottom side Ireland Rangers 2-0 at Malabar Field.

There were plenty of missed chances by both teams before Stoneham, booked in the 71st minute for unsporting behaviour, broke the deadlock in the 83rd minute. He then doubled the lead with his second goal a minute later. Ras Mykkal-Burgess, of Ireland Rangers, was sent off for a second yellow card in the 53rd minute.

St George’s, Paget Lions and Wolves, three other sides hoping to be in the hunt for promotion, continue to struggle in the bottom half of the table with just one win in four outings. St George’s were beaten 1-0 by neighbours X-Roads at Garrison Field where Tymon Daniels scored the only goal from a free kick in the first 15 minutes.

Paget and Wolves drew 0-0 at Southampton Oval.