Rivoli United's Devon Hodges (left) celebrates scoring a goal with teammates Omar Parker (centre) and Derrick Planter during the Digicel Premier League football match at Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday. - Ian Allen/Photographer

Rivoli United beat Village United 4-2 in their Digicel Premier League encounter at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday.

Both teams started the fixture on 13 points, but the victory shot ninth-place Rivoli up to 16.

The match, played on a pitch made slippery by rainfall, saw the visitors scoring in the 16th minute to silence the scores of Rivoli supporters. Mauricio Gordon beat his marker and kicked a tame shot that beat goalkeeper Demitri Brown, making it 1-0.

Rivoli soon started to string their passes together and in the 26th minute, Devon Hodges sent a pass to Valentine Gardener, who returned the ball for him to score and tie the game 1-1.

Ferocious shot

Hodges doubled his tally four minutes later when he beat his marker and kicked a ferocious shot past goalkeeper Kemar Llewellyn to make it 2-1.

Despite both teams putting in a lot of effort, faulty finishing denied either the chance to change the scoreline before half-time.

The second half saw Rivoli lifting the tempo of the game with Hodges, Gardener and the Planter brothers - Ricardo and Barrington - leading the charge.

Duly rewarded

They were duly rewarded in 66th minute when Hodges' pass towards Gardener was intercepted by Llewellyn. However, the goalie dropped the ball in the path of Gardener, who executed a perfect bicycle kick to make the score 3-1.

Four minutes later, it was 4-1 after Dwayne Lewis' long-range effort gave the keeper no chance.

It was a scrappy affair in the latter part of the encounter, even though Jeff Pearce converted from a goalmouth melee at the 86th minute to complete the scoring at 4-2.

Coach Bradley Stewart of Rivoli was grateful for the three points.

"We are thankful to have won our third match of the competition. It was a lack of concentration that allowed them to trail one-nil, the good thing is that we won," Stewart said.

His Village counterpart, Mervin White, offered: "It is my first game as coach, therefore more work will have to be done to deal with the rest of the competition," White reasoned.