Jomoul Francois scored a second half double after being involved in two earlier goals as St Ann's Rangers snatched their third win of the season with a 4-0 hammering of home side Pt Fortin Civic in the Digicel T&T Pro League on Sunday.
Previously dubbed the whipping boys of the Pro League, St Ann's Rangers are now up one spot into third with ten points, the same as W Connection, and one ahead of San Juan Jaboteh which faces Police FC at Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, from 6.30 pm this afternoon.
Two-time defending champions Central FC leads the table with 13 points from five matches. St Ann's Rangers, with nine Under-21 players in its squad, got off to a great start and grabbed a two-goal cushion within the first seven minutes through attackers Osaze Springer and Dylon King.
A diminutive Springer handed Rangers a 1-0 lead on four minutes when he completed a solo move, with a low drive into the far bottom corner of goalkeeper Miles Goodman's net after he was set into motion by Francois outside the right of the area.
Francois, enjoying his first start for Rangers this season, then picked out King lurking at the top of the area in the seventh minute, and the former Police FC attacker, then rifled his shot past Goodman for a 2-0 cushion.
Rangers continued their dominance against the cellar-placed Civic, who were without injured forwards Jamille Boatswain and Nigerian Ahinde Adeshigin, and four minutes after the resumption Francois, who was denied twice in the first-half by Goodman, finally beat the Civic goalkeeper with a shot from the right to find the far top corner as Rangers extended their lead to 3-0.
Francois, a former North East Stars winger then completed his double in the 82nd minute with a low strike off a Jameel Antoine feed to find Goodman's far netting. The hosts then came close to finding the back of the net through Sylvester Teesdale and Akeem Redhead, in the 86th and 90th minute respectively, but they were both denied by the post.
Speaking afterwards, Rangers coach Anthony Streete said the target is to achieve 14 points, which was achieved under last season's coach, Angus Eve, as the struggling St Ann's club finished last for a third consecutive time.
"I just want to prove it wasn't really the players [at fault]," said Streete, who returned this season as coach of Rangers.
"Don't take a job that you know will have faults and make the players the problem. If you take such a job, you have to do your best to try and make it work."
He added: "Praises to my team and the staff for reaching this far, especially the players for believing in themselves. I think the last couple years they weren't believing in themselves. Now they are winning and they are more and more believing in themselves."
Streete, who considers himself a tactician, said his players are committed to the task and the team even on the training pitch. Streete also said the younger players are feeding off the experience of team-mates such as goalkeeper Cleon John, Devon Drayton and Dylon King, who he considers the backbone of the team.
In Sunday's opener at Mahaica, Morvant Caledonia United came from behind three times to earn a share of the points in a 3-3 draw with Club Sando. The result saw Morvant Caledonia with five points and Club Sando with four, to maintain seventh and eight positions, respectively.
"It was a roller-coaster game," said Morvant Caledonia coach Rajesh Latchoo, who condemned his defence. "I'm not pleased with our defenders. We kept making mistakes and paid for those mistakes.
"Yes we are getting better, but if we didn't make mistakes, we won 3 nil (sic).
"We stay in front of Club Sando, they don't leapfrog us," continued the irate Morvant Caledonia coach."
But that's not where we wanted to be. We wanted to move forward on seven points and unfortunately we had to keep chasing the game because of those moments of lack in concentration by our defenders."
Results
Sunday's Results
Club Sando 3 (Keron Cornwall 32nd, Akeem Roach 56th, Shaquille Holder 89th) vs Morvant Caledonia United 3 (Kordell Samuel 42nd, Akim Armstrong 62nd, Jameel Neptune 90th+2)
St Ann's Rangers 4 (Osaze Springer 4th, Dylon King 7th, Jomoul Francois 49th, 81st) vs Pt Fortin Civic 0
Friday's Results
W Connection 2 (Andre Toussaint 31st, Dimitrie Apai 79th) vs Defence Force 0
Central FC 0 vs Ma Pau Stars 0
Today's Match ups
Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva:
Police FC vs San Juan Jabloteh, 6 pm