Although leading goalscorer Devon Hodges scored a hat-trick, Rivoli United were still beaten 4-3 by Meadhaven United in their Digicel Premier League encounter at the Spanish Town Prison Oval yesterday.

The Spanish Town team dominated the first half through the likes of Hodges, Ricardo Knight, Luke Soares, Valentine Gardener, Mark Newsome and Sean Coleman, and it was the competition's top marksman who started the scoring in the 12th minute. He also scored in the 50th and 54th minutes, to lift his tally for the season to 23.

The result moved Meadhaven to 38 points, one more than Village United, which relegated Reno with a 1-0 victory in their clash. Rivoli have 42 points.

Third-from-bottom Meadhaven, fighting to stave off relegation, came into their own and started to dominate the proceedings and found the equaliser when Weston Forest scored in the 47th minute.

That seemed to have lifted the team from St Andrew, and with additional goals by Keammar Daley in the 50th, Kemal Malcolm in the 56th, and Leighton Neita in the 80th minute, they rallied to secure a very important victory.

Bottom-placed teams

Coach Alrick Clarke said he is playing a waiting game.

"While we won today, we will still have to wait on the matches that involve Village and the other team (Reno)," he admitted of the two bottom-placed teams.

Rivoli's coach Oneil Thomas said: "We wanted to expose some of the unknown players, but I am not pleased that four goals were scored in the second half against us."