North Village 2 X-Roads 0

North Village moved three points clear at top of the Premier Division with a 2-0 victory over luckless X-Roads Warriors at Bernard’s Park.

The hosts produced a workmanlike performance against X-Roads, who came in determined not to produce a duplicate of the 6-0 thrashing that was handed them when the side last met in the Dudley Eve Trophy.

Nevertheless, while the scoreline was more modest, the end result was the same, with strikes by Jalen Harvey and D’Andre Wainwright on either side of the interval allowing the hosts to retain a perfect league from their first four matches.

However, indistinguishable was Village’s quality against a team thus far winless, particularly in the first half, when the teams played to a virtual standstill.

Village’s best early opportunity came in the tenth minute, when Jaizel Smith-DeShields, unloaded a powerful shot from range that went wide of goalkeeper Q’Shai Darrell’s right post.

Meanwhile, X-Roads lone moment of significance saw Donavan Thompson have his shot from close range saved by the right boot of Village custodian Detre Bell.

Village struck moments before the interval during a goalmouth scramble that was instigated by a pointed right-wing cross from Tahmi Williams, which found Harvey at the far post.

Harvey’s initial effort was blocked by Darrell into the path of Wainwright, positioned even closer, but Darrell miraculously scooped away the big forward’s would-be tap-in.

Wainwright cut the ball back to Harvey, who made no mistake the second time around, thumping the ball past a hopelessly exposed Darrell.

“For us it was a game of two levels,” explained Village coach Kenny Thompson after the match. “We were what we felt was a disappointing level in the first half.

“We were able to get the goal just before half-time, which would have settled us well going into half-time, but the second half was a level that we expect to be.”

Indeed, the second half bore witness to Village’s dominance, even as they only scored once, with Warriors forced to defend for vast periods against the marauding Rams.

Village’s second goal came via unforgivable circumstance in the 51st minute, when an ill-constructed wall against a free kick at the edge of the penalty area allowed a gap for Wainwright to exploit, scoring at the near post.

“I saw a gap in the wall and I just hit the ball through it,” said Wainwright.

So continued the early season woes of a X-Roads outfit, still trying to piece together components required to achieve victory.

“We have to keep pushing and see if we can put out better performances,” said coach Ralph Bean, who admitted his to be a work in progress. “ The better we perform, the better our chances are of picking up good result.

“In the first half we carried out instructions well, but in the second I think fatigue kicked in a little bit and we weren’t able to close down p[possible angles and the holes started to emerge.

“I’m not that concerned, because, if you look at last season, we were in the same position and maybe worse, where we had zero points.

“As long as we’re getting better that’s the objective.”

SCORERS

North Village: Harvey 45+1, Wainwright 51

TEAMS

North Village (3-5-2): D Bell 6 – T Wilson 6, K Knights 6, R Sampson 6 – J Harvey 7 (sub: T Bean, 87min), A Deshields-Tankard 6, T Ming 7, T Williams 6 (sub: A Dos Santos, 72) J Smith-DeShields 6 – D Wainwright 7 (sub: D Swan-DeSilva, 72), P Smith 6 (sub: J Outerbridge, 87). Substitutes not used: T Bean, I Simmons.

X-Roads (4-4-2): Q Darrell 6 – A Cajee 6 (sub: A Gill, 79), L Hewey-Darrell 6, A Mathews 5 (sub: O Williams, 46 6), D Teleman 6 – A Johnston 5, J Lottimore 6 (sub: C Wilson, 72), T Daniels 6, K Richardson 5 (sub: C Araujo, 58 5) – A Spencer 6 (sub: D Woolridge, 72), D Thompson 6. Substitutes not used: R Beek, T Whited, J Dill.

Referee: S Maybury.