Boulevard 0 PHC 9

PHC moved to within a point of leaders North Village after thrashing Boulevard 9-0 at Goose Gosling Field last night.

Substitute Jenico Sealey led the rout with a hat-trick with substitute Shavon Nisbett and Paul Simons grabbing two, while Marco Warren and Keishon grabbed a goal apiece.

Incredibly ,the deadlock was not broken until after the half-hour mark despite PHC looking dangerous from the outset with Simons rattling the crossbar and firing narrowly wide in the opening 20 minutes, while T’ysi Showers also had a strong penalty claim turned down. To make matters worse, he was forced off with an injury suffered in the challenge.

However, the prolonged pressure finally told in the 32nd minute when Simons opened the scoring after receiving the ball inside the area from the left-hand side and drilling a low strike past Jahhi Shakir and into the bottom corner.

That opened the floodgates with the visitors adding a second just a minute later. Boulevard gave possession away cheaply on the left and were duly punished by Sealey, who beat Shakir with ease.

The game was all but put out of Boulevard’s reach four minutes later when PHC added a third inside a devastating five-minute spell.

The host’s frailties down the wings were fully exposed again when the marauding Darren Usher made inroads down the right-hand side before picking out Sealey at the far post, who beat his marker with ease before firing across Shakir and into the far corner.

Refusing to rest on their laurels, PHC continued to pour forward and made it 4-0 in the 43rd minute when Bean cut in from the right before finding the bottom-left corner.

Blazers respite lasted all of seven minutes after the restart before the visitors added a fifth. A free-flowing move through the midfield eventually saw the ball fall to Simons who managed to bundle an effort past Shakir.

Just as in the first half, another goal followed almost immediately when De-Andre Smith-Lightbourne’s probing ball over the top found its way to Warren on the right side of the area, with the midfielder toying with his marker before slotting into the net.

Zebras continued to cause havoc down each wing and reaped further rewards in the 73rd minute when Sealey wrapped up his hat-trick, waltzing down the left wing before beating Shakir with a low driven shot.

Showing no mercy on the opposition the visitors added an eighth three minutes later with a well-worked team goal culminating in Nisbett tapping in from Warren’s cutback.

With Blazers seemingly about to be put out of their misery they imploded defensively one final time, giving the ball away inside the area allowing Nisbett to fire past Shakir and grabbing his second to complete the rout.

Leaders Village will have the chance to regain their four-point advantage when they host third-placed St George’s on Sunday.

SCORERS

PHC: Simons 32, 52, Sealey 33, 37, 73, Bean 43, Warren 54, Nisbett 76, 90+1

TEAMS

Boulevard (5-4-1): J Shakir 5 - A Famous 5 (sub G Liburd, 71min), J Williams 4, A Williams-Smith 4 (sub: S Woolridge, 62 5), A Johnston 4, J Bailey 4 - D Hendrickson 5, T Walker 5, T Taylor 5 (sub: O Wilson 39 5), K Davis 5 - C Darrell 5 (sub: N Augustus, 71). Substitutes not used: A Harvey, A Matthews

PHC (4-5-1): C Fubler 7 - D Usher 9 (sub: M Lambe, 83) N Griffith 7 (sub: K Lewis, 83), J Bather 7, D Smith-Lightbourne 7 - D Lodge 8, K Abraham 7 (sub: S Nisbett, 8), K Bean 8, M Warren 8 T Showers 6 (sub: J Sealey, 23 9) - P Simons 8. Substitutes not used: W Trott, K Lewis, D Richardson, S McDowall.

Referee: M Wyer