Devonshire Cougars produced a goal-laden display to beat North Village and lift their first piece of silverware under new coach Devar Boyles.

A brace by Korvon Tucker and goals from Tumani Steede and Lamont Brangman saw Cougars capture the Martonmere Cup at Wellington Oval yesterday, in a game where three players were taken to hospital with head injuries.

An early aerial tussle between Cougars' Domico Coddington and Village's Damon Edwards had both players writhing on the ground in pain with the latter being stretched off.

Coddington endeavoured to battle on but, like Edwards, was eventually taken away in an ambulance as a precautionary measure.

In a sickening twist of irony Edwards' replacement, Daz Simons, was also forced out of the showpiece after a head clash with Kwame Steede at the end of the first half to leave Village's already depleted defence reserves, well, even more threadbare.

None of the injuries were serious and all three players were expected to be released from hospital last night.

In the absence of the suspended Kofi Dill and Jemal Boyles, Village were always facing an uphill struggle against a Cougars side which has started the season in convincing fashion, although Rams had bolstered their attack by drafting in overseas-based college striker Keishen Bean.

However, it was Cougars who were looking the most dangerous during the early exchanges and should have taken the lead when Kwame Steede missed a one-on-one after being put through by his cousin, Tumani, with a delicate threaded pass.

But the vociferous sect of green and yellow-garbed supporters, complete with a travelling band of Gombey drummers, didn't have to wait long for something to cheer about with Tucker, lurking on the edge of the box, volleying home Kwame Steede's cross on 14 minutes.

On the stroke of half-time Tumani Steede doubled Cougars' lead when he pounced on Kwame's knock-down and dispatched a powerful shot past a helpless Calvin Augustus in the Village goal.

Midway through the second period Cougars struck again when a dithering Village back-line failed to clear their lines, allowing Tucker to coolly round Augustus and tap into an empty net.

Village did manage to string together some slick passing moves towards the end of the second half as Cougars looked to consolidate their three-goal advantage, but never realistically looked like troubling 'keeper Ricardo Brangman.

So comfortable were Cougars, Boyles even substituted Brangman in order to give his understudy Alexander Ingham a taste of the big match atmosphere later on.

Substitute Lamont Brangman completed the rout with a solo effort that saw him race from the half way line in the final minute.

Boyles said he was delighted to win his first trophy as Cougars supremo and had been left thrilled by his side's entertaining performance.

"It feels great to win my first trophy with Cougars and you always remember your first (final win) one," said Boyles.

"We played very well today and our finishing was good.

"We had to make a lot of adjustments based on the physicality of the game and we adapted well — the rest as they say is history.

"Our performances have been very consistent all season and today was another solid performance by us."

Devonshire Cougars: R. Brangman (A. Ingham 85), J. Butterfield, O. Butterfield, D. Cox, S. Brangman, K. Steede (L. Brangman 79), D. Coddington (R. Robinson 3), K. Tucker, T. Steede, M. Steede, K. Franks

Subs: R. Swan, M. Smith, Z. White

North Village: C. Augustus, R. Wilson, D. Edwards (D. Simons 3,) (T. Jennings 39) D. Butterfield, K. Wade, V. Minors, J. Jennings, J. Peniston, G. Johnson, R. Bean, K. Bean

Subs: P. Smith, D. Blyden, K. Dill, M. Godley

Referee: A. Francis

Yellow card: J. Butterfield (Devonshire Cougars)

Man-of-the-match: K. Tucker (Devonshire Cougars)