Devonshire Cougars 4 North Village 0

What started out so promisingly in the first half for visiting North Village, turned into a nightmare as Devonshire Cougars reversed the tables and ran amok at Devonshire Recreation Club yesterday.

In what proved a dominant second 45 minutes, Allan Douglas and Zari Simmons scored braces to seal the win for the home side.

Village’s Pierre Zuill got things going in the sixth minute when he sent a searching cross into the box to Justin Bell who whistled his shot just past the left upright. Four minutes later Lashun Dill miskicked his shot from ten yards out after being left unmarked.

Village continued to run at the Cougars but could not find their scoring touch as countless attacks failed to reap their rewards.

Dimitre Daniels could only watch in dismay as he skied a good opportunity well over the crossbar in what was Cougars’ best scoring chance of the half.

The visiting side came out flat-footed in the second half. Their lack of urgency seemed to rejuvenate the Cougars who came charging out of the blocks.

In the 50th minute, Simmons raced in on goal and hit a shot that deflected off a defender, sending the Tahj Bell, the Village goalkeeper, in the opposite direction.

The Cougars kept up their relentless pressure as Douglas went close to scoring in the 60th and 62nd minutes, respectively.

His perseverance was rewarded soon after when Simmons wiggled his way past two defenders before releasing the striker who wasted no time in hitting the back of the net.

Sensing further goals, the Cougars upped their pressure on the Village defence and were rewarded again in the 75th minute when Nyrobi Carmichael floated in a deep cross which found Douglas inside the six-yard box.

Douglas turned sharply to put his effort past the stranded goalkeeper.

The Cougars added insult to injury in the 90th minute when Simmons notched a fourth goal, firing past Bell.

Omar Butterfield, the Cougars coach, said: “We tried to stay calm in the midst of changing our shape.

“We knew we had to get ourselves out of our first-half situation of missing goals, so we tried to be more technical in our approach to the game and it paid off.”

Butterfield added: “Our goal is simply to improve game by game. If we can do this, the results will speak for themselves.”

SCORERS

Devonshire Cougars

Simmons 50, 90, Douglas 69, 75

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-3-3): L Tota — A Douglas, C Maybury, D Simmons (sub: Z White, 82min), D Williams — D Daniels, N Simmons (sub: Mark Steede, 82), N Carmichael — S Pearman (sub: J Mouchette, 70), Z Simmons — Z White. Substitutes not used: C Matthews, Moses Steede, K Mills-Wilson. Booked: Zeko White, N Carmichael.

North Village: (4-4-2): T Bell — T Fray, P Castle, J Thomas, J Davis — K Knights,(sub: Z Hendrickson, 82), J Bell (sub: K Francois, 82), L Dill, C Caisey — P Smith, J Smith-DeShields (sub: G Butterfield, 45.) Substitutes not used: W Shakir, D Dillas. Booked: G Butterfield.

Referee: G Swainson.