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Hood thrash PHC to remain in contention

On target: Tomiko Goater got on the scoresheet in Robin Hood’s 6-0 thrashing of PHC Zebras

PHC 0 Robin Hood 6

Humbled by their failure to capture the Dudley Eve Trophy at the final hurdle, Robin Hood vented their frustrations on PHC in a ruthless 6-0 dismantling of reigning league champions on Saturday at the Zebras’ home ground.

Such was acknowledged by Hood head coach John Barry Nusum after the visitors had reduced the champions to appearing but a shadowy corpse of the side that has held a virtual stranglehold over the division the past half-decade but were all but put to death and out of the championship picture being outplayed, outworked and bereft of ideas of how to combat their opponents.

Conversely Robin Hood performed as a harmonious, orchestrated concerto once taking only a few early moments to tune.

“To be honest with you they caught us on a day where we were coming off that loss to Town in the cup and they really had something on their shoulders to prove,” said a satisfied Nusum after conducting the fine symphony.

“The boys were able to get in early and get our shots off, scored and the game really came to us. We came to work today and can feel good about what shape we’re in.

“Everyone had one message, that loss was really hard on us and everyone put in the effort and believed that if PHC were going to win it was not going to be because of any lack of effort on our part.”

The Saturday result allowed them to remain in virtual lockstep with North Village and Nusum said that he had few complaints about his men heading toward the Christmas break that marks the half-way point and looked to have them continue to perform at a high level.

“We’re satisfied with where we’re at at the moment, we’ve only had one tie in the league as a blemish and we can’t ask for more than that,” Nusum added.

“We just look to push game by game looking for three points each time and hopefully by the end of we’ll have more points than they do,” he said of what

Such is the strength of Hood’s riches within their squad that multi-talented players such as Antwan Russell Shakir Smith, who could well march into any others’ first team are used as subs.

Evidence of their urgency to rectify the recent disappointment came when the first note of high octave was struck in the 14th minute by Ereico Outerbridge as he rose to meet a cross from Casey Castle and crashed his header past Shaquille Trott.

Similar melody was sounded three minutes later when Jaylon Bather likewise was able to elude man marking inside the penalty area to thunder his header beyond the exposed goalkeeper.

Tomeiko Goater later tallied in the 30th minute following a trademark mazy run down the left flank before cutting inside and giving Trott no options from six yards.

And Hood continued their march toward crescendo with a goal from Liam Edwards moments before halftime followed by further efforts from Lejuan Simmons and Justin Corday during the second stanza to bring down the curtain.

Meanwhile, PHC have much to do if they are to successfully defend their league title.

They continue to struggle for consistency in performance, particularly in defence which has appeared a sieve for goals.

On Saturday they were severely lacking in pace in the middle, failed to handling marking duties and had no one seemingly adept at ball handling duties.

The void left by departed, former head coach Scott Morton is obvious and current head man Robert Bean appears yet to have been able to get his side meshed quite right and will need a determined run if inroads are to be made so that they can improve their mid-table status and become more legitimate title contenders.

Bean refused to comment following the match however captain CeCoy Robinson remained confident in his club returning to form, but that each member had to improve their level of commitment to be better if they are to stand a chance of successfully defending their title.

“It was just a bad day at the office that’s all, nothing’s wrong, everything is cool, we’re still united just have to regroup for he next one that’s all,” said Robinson, whose level of effort cannot be questioned, emphasised as he appeared in seemingly every position and space on the field trying to fill gap and lift his side.

“It’s nothing technically wrong, we just have to step up as individuals and just keep working together.”

SCORERS

Robin Hood: Ereico Outerbridge 14, Jaylon Bather 17, Temeiko Goater 28, Liam Edwards 40, Justin Corday 60, Lejuan Simmons 89

TEAMS

PHC Zebras (4-4-1-1): Shaquille Trott — Shakhai Trott, D Dowling, D Usher, D Smith-Lightbourne — N Griffith, M Warren, J Iris, T Ming — C Robinson — J Warren-Smith (sub: J Sealey, 65min). Substitutes not used: T Place, M Lambe, Z Lee, J Joseph, K Hypolite. T Showers. Booked: Marco Warren.

Robin Hood (3-5-2): D Eve — J Pereira, J Bather, D Williams — C Castle, J Corday (sub: S Smith 75), P Parsons (sub: C Ryan 58), E Outerbridge (sub: T Tyrell, 57), L Edwards, T Goater, L Simmons: Substitutes: A Nelson, A Russell, S Smith.

Referee: Martin Dwyer