North Village 2 X-Roads Warriors 2

North Village squandered a golden opportunity to go clear at the top of the Premier Division table after being held by struggling X-Roads Warriors, who rallied from a two-goal deficit to earn their first point of the season at Bernard Park yesterday.

The champions led 2-0 on Jaizel Smith-DeShields’s first-half brace and appeared well on course for their fourth successive league win with 15 minutes of regulation time remaining.

But X-Roads battled on courageously and were ultimately rewarded as Donovan Thompson and Paul Simons scored within the space of two minutes to turn the match on its head.

Village created chances to regain the lead, but were denied by Dashun Cooper, the X-Roads goalkeeper, who made a string of outstanding saves to ensure the visiting side came away with a share of the spoils.

The result denied Village the chance to go two points clear after Robin Hood suffered the exact same fate the night before in being pegged back for a 2-2 draw by Southampton Rangers.

Hood remain on top, level on points with Village but ahead on goal difference.

Reflecting on the match, Kenny Thompson, the Village coach, said: “This just hammers home that in football you have to be concentrating for the entire 90 minutes, and we weren’t, especially on the 2-1 goal.

“We were very lax in closing the player on the ball down [Thompson] and paid the price of conceding, and then right after that conceded another.”

Kameron Fox, the X-Roads coach, hailed his players’ resilience.

“I am just really proud of the boys; they never gave up,” he said.

“It’s very difficult in this league to hold down teams like Village from scoring.

“We tried our best and they [Village] got away at the beginning. But we showed character, as warriors should show.”

Village went straight for the jugular from the opening kick-off with the in-form Smith-DeShields forcing Cooper to make a save at his near post in the first minute of play.

X-Roads gradually settled down and, after establishing a foothold in the middle of the park, began to poke holes in Village’s defence.

Thompson had the ball in the back of the net after a fluent counter-attack but the goal was waved off by the referee’s assistant.

Ian Coke, the X-Roads striker, then blazed Calun Minors’s through-ball into the box just over the bar, with Village goalkeeper Tahj Bell standing off his line.

The game turned sharply when Smith-DeShields put the home side ahead against the run of play. Village forward Raequan Rochester dispossessed X-Roads defender Jamin Furbert and played the ball into open space for Smith-DeShields to run on to and slot past the advancing Cooper.

The dust had hardly settled when Smith-DeShields struck again to double Village’s advantage. Rochester played another through pass, which Smith-DeShields controlled before evading two defenders and firing past Cooper on an angle.

X-Roads had a glorious opportunity to pull one back right on the stroke of half-time, but Thompson sliced wide from eight yards after getting a clear look at goal.

Village came charging out of the blocks at the start of the second half, with Smith-DeShields dragging Quintonio Lema’s through-ball wide of the target.

Even though they trailed by a pair of goals, X-Roads were never out of the match, as they still held their own in midfield and threatened going forward.

Their persistence eventually paid off when Thompson pulled one back to give his team a lifeline and signal “game on”. Furbert headed Tyrell Burgess’s cross back across the goalmouth, leaving the unmarked Thompson to tap in his team’s first goal of the season from close range.

Simons then brought the teams level in the wink of an eye in spectacular fashion with the goal of the game, with Thompson providing the assist.

The 25-year-old forward picked out Simons, who then smashed the ball into the roof of the net with a shot from outside of the box.

X-Roads missed a golden opportunity when Burgess’s low cross rolled untouched across the goalmouth before Village cleared their lines.

Village pressed on with Tahmi Williams and substitute Pierre Smith both firing wide.

Cooper then denied Lema with his legs from point-blank range before diving full length to get his fingertips to Demetre Daniels’s goal-bound effort from 20 yards.

SCORERS

North Village: Smith-DeShields 13, 25

X-Roads: Thompson 75, Simons 77

TEAMS

North Village (4-2-3-1): T Bell — A Darrell, T Fray, Z Robinson, K Knights — J Briers, T Williams — R Rochester (sub: K Bean, 46min), D Daniels (sub: A Booth, 88), Q Lema — J Smith-DeShields (sub: P Smith, 75). Substitutes not used: R Murphy, S Jennings, N Araujo. Booked: Knights.

X-Roads (4-3-3): D Cooper — C Minors, J Furbert, T Burgess, C McDowell — R Turnbull (sub: T Perinchief, 70), M Furr, P Simons — D Thompson, D Woolridge (sub: J Bean, 70), I Coke (sub: T Daniels, 75). Substitutes not used: C Trott, Q Darrell, A Heyliger, K Brangman. Booked: Furbert, Burgess, McDowall.

Referee: G Swainson.