Reggae Boys Leon Bailey and Michael Antonio both scored in the English Premier League on Saturday, but Jamaica target Ivan Toney stole the headlines with a superb hat-trick for Brentford.
The 25-year-old Bailey earned Villa a point in a 1-1 draw against Manchester City with a sweetly struck shot into the top corner on 74 minutes – their only shot on target – after the league’s top scorer, 22-year-old UK-born Norwegian Erling Haaland, claimed his 10th goal in sixth games in the 50th minute.
The draw lifted Villa out of the drop zone and took the pressure off manager Steven Gerrard.
“Very proud – the players have come together today. They put an incredible amount of effort into the game, followed instructions,” said Gerrard.
“City are always going to have moments and we had to ride our luck. This is what we wanted out of the game and this is the game plan we gave them.”
At Stamford Bridge, 31-year-old Antonio put West Ham United ahead on 62 minutes, bundling in from close range after Bles goalkeeper Edlouard Mendy failed to deal with a corner, but Chelsea fought back to win 2-1 after the visitors had a 90th-minute Maxwel Cornet equalizer ruled out.
Hammers’ manager David Moyes, whose side are third from bottom, was left fuming by the decision after Jarrod Bowen was adjudged to have caught Mendy before the ball fell to his team-mate.
“It is a scandalous decision,” said Moyes. “The referee gave it and I don’t know who sent him from VAR (video assistant referee), but I always thought he would say it is a goal once he went to the screen.
“I have seen it from all angles and find it incredibly difficult to see how that is chalked off. I don’t know who in VAR sent him there.”
The 26-year-old Toney passed the 50-goal mark for Brentford with his hat-trick which condemned Leeds to a 5-2 away defeat.
Toney opened the scoring with a 30th-minute penalty – awarded after a foul by Luis Sinisterra and a long VAR intervention – then doubled the hosts’ lead with a superb free-kick two minutes before the break, before chipping in his third on 58 minutes.
In League one, 35-year-old winger Garath McCleary, who made 24 appearances for the Reggae Boyz between 2013 and 2016, was sent off in the 10th minute but Wycombe Wanderers held on for a 1-1 draw at Fleetwood Town.
McCleary saw red for an off-the-ball clash with Drew Baker that left the Fleetwood defender floored and clutching his face.
Jamaica-born forward Simeon Jackson, 35, who played 49 times for Canada, meanwhile scored a 53rd-minute penalty for Chelmsford City but the hosts lost as Havant & Waterlooville hit back to win 4-3 in the sixth-tier National League South.
