Dandy Town 4

Devonshire Cougars 1

Dandy Town Hornets sent out another ominous marker after thrashing Devonshire Cougars in their own backyard in the Dudley Eve Trophy last night.

Hornets, who dismissed Somerset Trojans 4-0 in the Charity Cup last weekend, continued their inspiring start to the season by dominating a shell-shocked Cougars, who appeared disjointed and ineffective throughout.

While early-season form can often have a chameleon-like quality for change, on the evidence of the past two matches Hornets, who claimed the league title, FA Cup and Dudley Eve Trophy last season, will prove difficult to knock off their perch as the Island’s standout team.

Most encouraging for Jomar Wilkinson, the Hornets coach, have been the eye-catching performances of his teenage trio, Jahnazae Swan, Jahtino Richardson-Martin and Ayshaun Smith, who have made a seamless transition into the club’s first team.

However, it was one of Hornets’ senior players, Fabian Frankson, who started the ball rolling with a superb, first-time strike on the edge of the box to hand them the lead in the seventh minute.

The Jamaican forward then struck his third goal in three games with another fine effort from the outside the area, curling a shot past Kioshi Trott, the Cougars goalkeeper, to double the Hornets’ lead.

Cougars, playing only their second game under new coach Andrew Bascome, pulled a goal back almost immediately, with midfielder Moses Steede drilling home a low shot to lift the spirits of the home faithful at Devonshire Recreation Club.

While Steede’s goal settled his side a little, Hornets’ three-pronged attack of Swan, Frankson and Clay Darrell continued to look lively, with Cougars’ lone striker, Derrick Brangman, cutting an isolated figure — his lack of pace and mobility rarely troubled the Hornets defence.

Moments before the half-time whistle, Darrell, a summer capture from North Village, opened his account for his new club, latching on to a through-ball before cutting inside and firing a low shot from just inside the area that beat Trott at his near post.

After the break, Hornets tightened their vice-like grip around the proverbial neck of Bascome’s Cougars, with Swan grabbing his third goal of the season with a neat close-range finish.

The 16-year-old striker may have been the smallest player on the pitch but his presence loomed large, his searing and pace and movement causing Kwame Steede and Zeko White, Cougars’ defensive partnership, a plethora of problems.

Moments after Seion Darrell struck the crossbar for Hornets from a free kick, Swan almost turned provider, wriggling his way through the defence and squaring a pass to substitute Smith, whose shot took a deflection for a corner.

Smith, a former PHC Zebras forward, then had another opportunity, a one-on-one, but his touch was too heavy, enabling the outrushing Trott to smother the danger.

Cougars, who drew 2-2 against Flanagan’s Onions in their Trophy opener on Monday, will undoubtedly improve with Bascome sure to implement his tactics upon his young players in time.

However, compared with the Cougars squads of recent years, it remains to be seen whether the Bermuda coach has the quality of personnel required to challenge for silverware this season.

It is a quandary that his opposite number Wilkinson does not appear to share. “We started the game exactly as we wanted to do and had some success from it,” he said.

“Our intensity dropped a little in the last 20 minutes of the first half, but I thought we dominated the second half.

“I’m very encouraged but we have to put things into perspective; Cougars have only been training for a few weeks and will certainly get better.

“I have to give plenty of credit to our youth programme, though, because our young players again did very well for us tonight.”