A Henroy Mitchell hat trick gave the Islanders a 5-1 victory over the Lucian Stars in Sunday's BVIFA National League encounter.

Valdo Anderson atoned for first half misses by giving the "Reds" a 3-1 lead early in the second 45.

Benjamin Camille rallied his troops at every opportunity and pulled off some acrobatic saves in the first half.

Playing against eight men forced into a defensive mode is never easy and so the Islanders discovered as the Lucian Stars went into a rear guard action as they awaited their cavalry from Virgin Gorda.

Even after the opening goal came from the boot of skipper Andy Davis after just two minutes, the Lucian Stars were resolute and in fact raced up the other end and equalized through Brian Cheslery.

Less than 90 seconds had passed when Cheslery first picked up a careless pass from the Islanders, carried the ball past the last line of defenders and avoided the despairing dive of Monty Butler to fire home the equalizer, much to the joy of the Spartan crowd.

Like famous Generals and soldiers from a past era, Benjamin Camille urged his team to the ramparts as the Islanders, stung by the embarrassment, poured forward in wave after wave of fruitless attacks.

For 17 minutes, the Stars dealt with everything that the Islanders sent their way and with a combination of acrobatics from Benjamin and the, to be fair, usual profligacy in front of goal. So often this season, despite scoring freely by the end of a game, the Islanders squander opportunity to put matches away earlier with a rush of blood or wasteful final ball.

Mitchell, Anderson, Primo and Ottley all guilty of first half misses.

The eight men of Lucian deserved their half time break and only a one goal deficit, but early in the second half and with a muted a celebration as you will ever see from strikers, both Valdo Anderson (49) and Mitchell (52) scored from close range to put the game beyond doubt.

Mitchell duly completed his hat trick in the 75th minute again from close range and as in so many Western Movies, the cavalry then arrived not too little but certainly too late.

For the next 15 minutes, the fans were witness to how the game would have unfolded with, the admittedly fresher legs of the additional Stars players they harried and harassed the Islanders and more than held their own.

In the other game, Ball Stars and Old Madrid played to a scoreless draw.