Young Men’s Social Club 5 X-Roads Warriors 2

Social Club’s coach Mikey Smith was all smiles after his Angle Street unit comfortably beat X-Roads Warriors 5-2 in group A of the Dudley Eve Trophy at Goose Gosling Field last night.

After conceding 12 goals in their previous two games, newly promoted Social Club finally had something to cheer about with three players finding the net to put a smile on the face of coach Smith.

“I think we are moving in the right direction,” he said.

“This is definitely a morale booster after taking 12 in two games. This competition helps to prepare teams to get ready for the upcoming season and can show the different calibre between Premier and First Division soccer.

“I think we are going to surprise a few teams this year once we are fully fit and all our players are back. We will keep working hard to improve our game and take one game at a time.”

Social Club started the game with a spark and opened the scoring as early as the fourth minute with a good strike from Jinairo Johnson, who doubled his tally with a firm strike from the top of the box midway through the half when Darren Woolridge was dispossessed deep in his defensive third.

X-Roads captain Donovan Thompson, who was making his first appearance in this tournament, was a constant threat with his forceful running which helped his team create their opening goal.

After playing a give and go with Aaron Spencer, the captain had his attempt on goal blocked for a corner, which was only partially cleared and fell to Spencer, who controlled and hit a firm drive through a maze of players into the net.

X-Roads thought they had equalised on the stroke of half time but Tyman Daniels’s goalbound header from a corner was cleared off the line as Social Club maintained the one goal lead going into the break.

After a stern half-time talk from coach Ralph Bean Jr, X-Roads looked a more determined team.

Social Club goalkeeper Ryan Evans made a spectacular diving save to deny Spencer’s freekick from heading into the corner but perseverance paid off two minutes after the restart when Spencer fed a perfect through ball for Thompson to run on to only to be upended inside the box. Daniels kept his cool to place his spot-kick in the bottom-right corner to tie the match.

Social Club then scored on the counter-attack after breaking free down their opponent’s right side, where Jomeko Mallory converted with a tap-in at the front post from a low cross and they continued to find delight down this flank, scoring their fourth through Kwensi Cann.

Mallory would close out his team’s scoring when he outran his defender to hit a low drive from an angle, which beat Warriors’ goalkeeper Q’Shai Darrell before finding the net off the upright.

Goalscorer Cann was the only blemish on Social Club’s record as he received his marching orders in the 85th minute for his second cautionable offence.

SCORERS

YMSC: J Johnson 4, 22, J Mallory 57,83, K Cann 69

X-Roads: A Spencer 25, T Daniels 47

TEAMS

YMSC (4-3-3): R Evans 6 — T Butterfield 6, K Butterfield 6, C Woolridge 6 (sub: K Cann, 63 5), J Richardson 6 (sub: K Smith, 57 5) — R Parris 6, J Johnson 7, B Swan 6 — D Jones Jr 7, G Butterfield 6, J Mallory 7. Substitutions not used: K Butterfield, Z Hendrickson, E Lewis. Sent off: Cann.

X-Road Warriors (4-2-3-1): Q Darrell 5 — A Cajee 5 (sub: A Matthews 69, 5), J Smith 6, T Whited 6, D Teleman 6 (sub: O Williams, 69 5) — D Woolridge 5 (sub: L Hewey-Darrell, 34 6), T Daniels 6 — J Lottimore 5 (sub: R Beek, 86), A Spencer 7, K Richardson 6 (sub: C Whited, 86) — D Thompson 7. Substitutions not used: A Gill. Booked: Cajee, Whited.

Referee: R Douglas.