Omar Butterfield, the Devonshire Cougars coach, showered praise on his youthful squad after their dramatic victory over Dandy Town Hornets in the second Dudley Eve Trophy semi-final at Goose Gosling Field on Wednesday night.

A late double salvo from substitutes Lamont Brangman and Nyeem Simmons in the final four minutes of an evenly fought and exciting encounter earned Cougars a 3-1 victory, and sent them through to their first Dudley Eve Trophy final appearance in three seasons.

“I am very proud of this team,” Butterfield, the former Cougars defender, said. “It’s a very young team but they are growing and I am very pleased to see their growth.”

Cougars went into the cup tie as the underdogs but looked anything but as they kept their shape and never panicked under relentless pressure from Hornets, even after Eusebio Blankendal cancelled out Christian Albouy’s wonder strike that gave the men in green and gold the lead against the run of play.

“I thought we showed a lot of character for what we were going up against,” Butterfield said.

“It took awhile for us to capitalise when they went down to ten-men [after the sending off of Tomiko Goater]. But we kept our shape and stuck to the game plan which showed great character for what we were going up against.”

The victory was Cougars’ second straight over Town inside of three weeks, which also avenged a 5-4 penalty shoot-out loss to Town in the 2013-14 Dudley Eve Trophy final.

Cougars edged Town 2-1 in the Premier Division at St John’s Field on October 2.

“Dandy Town is a very good opponent but we do have their number,” Butterfield said.

Cougars scraped through to the semi-final on goal difference after taking only one point from group B, which included North Village and Robin Hood.

Despite losing a plethora of senior players, including inspirational player/coach Kwame Steede, Cougars are off to a better start to the season than in the previous one with an exciting crop of young players.

“We are rebuilding and what we have is a lot of home-grown players and we have narrowed it down to what we need and it’s a good look,” Butterfield said. “We are just continuing to build and as we build we want to continue doing the things that are bringing us success and create a winning mentality.”

The coach admits reaching the Dudley Eve Trophy final exceeded his expectations.

“We didn’t even have ourselves going through to be honest,” Butterfield said. “The first two Dudley Eve games I used more as preseason because we were a little late with our preparations so this just shows how we are making good progress.”

Cougars will now meet PHC Zebras, the champions, in the final.

Zebras beat Cougars 2-0 the last time the two sides met in the Premier Division on September 25 at Devonshire Recreation Club.

“PHC will be a hard test,” Butterfield said. “But when we played them the other day I felt we gave them a good match. We just have to get a game plan and stick to it and execute.”

The Dudley Eve Trophy final is scheduled to be held at Devonshire Recreation Club on November 11.