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SOCCER ace Dennis Lawrence broke a goal-scoring record just hours after dodging Jamaica's worst-ever hurricane!


Despite only arriving back in Wales hours before, the Wrexham defender not only scored the winning goal but was crowned Man of the Match as well!

Dennis stunned fans with the fastest goal in the league - just one minute, 23 seconds into Wrexham's match against Bradford - but just hours earlier, it was an entirely different ball game.

The 6ft 7ins soccer hero landed in Manchester at 6.30pm on Friday, after a 10-hour flight from Trinidad, where he had been playing for Trinidad and Tobago.

But as he was enjoying his break in the Caribbean island - his mum's native home - news hit of Hurricane Ivan.

Speaking after his sensational performance in yesterday's match, the 30-year-old player said: "We were on alert, waiting for the hurricane to hit us in Trinidad, but thankfully the good Lord shone on us and all we had was a bit of rain and wind.

"But my dad, who has now passed away, was from Grenada and I'm sure he had relatives there. It's such a sad thing for the country."

Dennis, who won Man of the Match for his heroics on the pitch yesterday, admitted he was scared about the flight home.

He added: "It did cross my mind to be honest but I was so tired I just got my head down and slept."

Hurricane Ivan has wreaked devastation on Jamaica this weekend, pounding the island with torrential rain and high winds.

Two-storey high waves and powerful gales of up to 155mph have torn up power lines, trees and roofs.

Yesterday, Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson declared a state of emergency following a total blackout across the island.

Forecasters warn the hurricane, dubbed Ivan the Terrible by locals, is a dangerous category four, on a scale of five, and could well intensify as it heads towards the Cayman Islands and Cuba, where it is expected to strike on Monday.

Despite having apparently escaped the worst of the storms the hurricane has caused Jamaica extensive damage, claimed lives and lost hundreds of homes.

Yesterday, 124 UK holidaymakers who were evacuated from Grenada arrived back on a British Airways mercy flight from Barbados.

They told of their terrifying ordeal as Ivan struck Grenada on Tuesday, devastating about 90% of homes.

Teacher Flora Shortt, 31, and her husband, 48-year-old artist John Wilson, were on honeymoon at the Blue Horizons resort by Grand Anse beach.

Mr Wilson said they feared they might be killed when the roof of their self-contained villa was damaged.

His wife said: "We heard a high noise and then the front of the roof ripped off.

"We spent the day in the bathroom with the door shut."

A spokesman for British Airways said it was not yet known which flights would go ahead over the coming days. He said the company was taking it on a "day by day basis".

Virgin Atlantic recovered its customers earlier this week after it cancelled a flight to Barbados.

An extra flight was put on to bring home passengers who had been stranded in the Caribbean for up to two or three days.