Devonshire Cougars 2

Dandy Town 1

Ugly scenes marred Devonshire Cougars’ hard-fought come-from-behind victory over Premier Division leaders Dandy Town Hornets at Devonshire Recreation Club last night.

Moments after referee Anthony Francis blew the final whistle the teams had to be separated as an initial flare-up escalated between Cougars’ Mikkiel Thomas and Hornets’ Drewonde Bascome, a former Cougars player.

When the dust settled, Thomas, who came on as a 90th-minute substitute, was shown a red card for violent conduct by the referee, who helped to restrain players during the heated moment that dented Cougars’ second-half comeback.

Tomiko Goater put Town ahead in the 47th minute before the home team hit back through Jordan Darrell’s header from a set-piece in the 61st minute and Seion Darrell’s 80th-minute own goal that condemned the visiting side to only their second league defeat of the season.

Cougars, who are now unbeaten in their past four league outings, climbed from seventh to fifth, level on points with fourth-placed North Village but behind on goal difference, while Town remained nine points clear at the top.

Kwame Steede, the Cougars player-coach, who had a hand in his team’s winner, hailed his side’s never-say-die attitude.

“We have been showing heart for the last few weeks,” he said. “We came out in 2016 with a lot of heart and we are showing it right now.”

Steede said his team got their tactics spot on. “We knew how Town played, so we sat back and waited,” he said. “We just tried to make Town play in front of us and it worked for us because we caught them in a lot of traps. I thought it was a good match.”

The game finally came alive at the start of the second half, with poor defending paving the way for Goater to put the Town ahead. Cougars’ defence failed to deal with a long ball played from midfield, leaving Goater the easy task of smashing past Kioshi Trott, the Cougars goalkeeper, from close range.

Falling behind to seemed to jolt Cougars and, after finally taking charge of midfield, they pinned Town down with wave after wave of attacks before the visiting side eventually caved in.

Steede should have done better after a ball played over the defence left the forward with only Ajai Daniels, the Town goalkeeper, to beat. However, he shot tamely into the goalkeeper’s arms to let Town off the hook.

Cougars finally made the breakthrough from a set-piece after former player Kor-Von Tucker conceded a free kick deep in his team’s own half, which Darrell, the left back, nodded past Daniels to make it three goals in two matches.

Bascome squandered a golden opportunity to put Town back in front when he failed to get enough power on Damon Ming’s inviting cross.

Bascome’s glaring miss ultimately came back to haunt Town as Steede’s low drive took a wicked deflection off Darrell and trickled in at the far post, with Daniels stranded.

Lamelle Paynter’s second-half strike rescued a point for Wolves in a 2-2 draw against St David’s in the First Division opener.

The visiting side took only three minutes to break the home side down, Nasaje Anderson scoring from a free kick to give St David’s a dream start.

Wolves eventually hit back in the 39th minute through Kyle Brangman.

However, Allan Douglas restored St David’s lead three minutes before the interval, only for Paynter to earn the home side a share of the spoils in the 62nd minute.

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-5-1): K Trott — J Darrell (sub: Z Morris, 81min), Zeko White, Zekiro White, J Furbert-Wade (sub: L Brangman, 60) — Moses Steede, Z Simmons, K Steede, C Burns, M Battersbee — C Brangman (sub: M Thomas, 90). Substitutes not used: C Albouy, Cashun Brangman, C Stevens, N Carmichael. Sent off: Thomas.

Dandy Town (3-5-2): A Daniels — L Millett, D Williams, S Darrell — K Tucker (sub: J Richardson-Martin, 65), L Tucker, D Bascome, T Goater, D Ming (sub: J Swan, 81) — Q Maynard (sub: K Davis, 85), A Simmons. Substitutes not used: E Blankendal, M Crockwell, T Daniels, J Amory.

Referee: A Francis.

Disappointment for Simons and Chesterfield

Rai Simons, the Bermuda striker, could not prevent Chesterfield slipping to 1-0 defeat away to Burton Albion in Sky Bet League One yesterday.

Simons, 20, had two scoring chances before being replaced by Emmanuel Dieseruvwe after 62 minutes. Calum Butcher scored the only goal of the game at the end of the first half as the league leaders moved seven points clear.

Butcher finished calmly from inside the box at the end of a first half delayed by an injury to Chesterfield defender Liam O’Neil at the Pirelli Stadium.

The home side had the best of the chances, with forward Stuart Beavon denied by goalkeeper Tommy Lee.

The defeat leaves Chesterfield just a point above Fleetwood Town and the bottom four.