Boulevard Blazers 1

Devonshire Colts 0

In a scrappy encounter at Police Field, Boulevard Blazers overcame a defiant goalkeeper and the loss of Jahleel Crockwell to eventually see off Devonshire Colts thanks to Ian Coke’s brilliant second-half strike.

Reduced to ten men after Crockwell was sent off for one too many clumsy tackles, for a time Boulevard also looked like they might struggle to find a way past Keitaro Darrell, the Colts goalkeeper.

Time and again Darrell stood between Boulevard and a comfortable victory, and it wasn’t until Coke’s intervention midway through the second half that the Colts defence was finally breached.

A first half that was largely a tense affair, punctuated with equal stints of possession enjoyed by both teams, eventually gave way to a better second half.

However, scoring opportunities were few and far between as neither team were able to generate much up front, due to timely defensive stops and sloppy offensive breakdowns that plagued both teams at inopportune times.

Blazers came close in the 25th minute when a failed clearance by the Colts defence gifted a free ball to Dunn-Ya Taylor, the Boulevard forward, whose blast from the edge of the box was tipped just over by Keitaro Darrell, the Colts goalkeeper.

Two minutes before the break Darrell was called on again to save a blistering shot from Coke, who was sent through on a long pass out of the defence.

Unfortunately for Coke, his screamer of a shot was sent directly at Darrell who was able to parry his shot away from goal.

Almost immediately after the restart, Sergio Robinson, the Boulevard midfielder, got off a shot that sailed inches over the crossbar.

Unfazed by that near miss Colts launched, but squandered, their best scoring opportunity of the game when after a well-worked free kick from just outside the penalty area, Jomei Bean-Lindo slipped a low, deft pass through a densely packed Blazers’ defence that found DeAndre Wainwright alone just inside the six-yard box.

However, Wainwright wasted a superb chance to pull Colts level after he shot tamely at Daniel Adams, the Boulevard goalkeeper.

Both teams continued to trade raids on their opponents goal but had little to show for their efforts until Coke, after receiving a defence-splitting pass from Maquel Tankard in the 72nd minute, was able to round his defender and, from a tight angle, power his shot at goal that Darrell did well to get a hand to.

However the goalkeeper could only watch in agony as the ball ricocheted off his hands and nestled just inside the far post, setting off a wild celebration on the Boulevard bench and among their supporters.

It was a break that the Blazers were looking for, while at the same time the goal seemed to light a fire under the Colts as they pressed and began applying pressure with telling runs at the Boulevard defence.

Colts made regular substitutions in search of the equaliser, but their frequent raids kept coming up short as their opponents stymied their attacks time and again.

The Colts final opportunity to draw level came when Lozendro Symonds gifted a glorious chance to Kyle Jones, who had come on minutes earlier, but Jones could only hold his head in dismay as he shot widely across goal from close range.

The miss put pay to any ideas Colts may have entertained of equalising and left Boulevard to blaze off with the win.

TEAMS

Scorers

Boulevard Blazers (Coke 72)

Boulevard Blazers (4-4-2): D Adams — I Coke, J Crockwell, A Foggo, S Robinson (sub: N Smith, 67min) — K Smith, Z Stovell, M Tankard, D Taylor (sub: J Samuels, 73) — E Trott, T Walker (sub: A Smith, 84). Substitutes not used: S Fostin, I Mallory, T Davis. Sent off: J Crockwell

Devonshire Colts (4-4-2): K Darrell — J Maybury, V Lambe, K Wilkinson, T Eve — J Burgess, J Bean-Lindo (sub: B OConnor, 77), E Smith, L Symonds — J Woodley (sub: J Paynter, 46), D Wainwright (sub: K Jones, 55). Substitutes not used: D Ball, Q Simmons, L Matthews, D Lambe. Booked: V Lambe

Referee: A Augustus