Devonshire Cougars 1 PHC 4

A horrendous defensive display from Devonshire Cougars, coupled with some pretty poor finishing, helped PHC to an emphatic win at Devonshire Rec yesterday.

Strikes from Blenn Bean and Cecoy Robinson, a Shae Smith penalty and a Joshua Butterfield own goal were enough to complete a comfortable victory for the away side, who leapfrogged their hosts to go second in the Premier Division as a result.

In a game that was overshadowed by the shooting of Cougars player Shaki Minors on Friday evening, the home side never really got going and could well have lost by a far greater margin.

Up front they fared little better, and PHC goalkeeper Raymond Glasford did not have to make a single save worthy of the name. Ijahmon Mallory's last minute consolation goal was little more than an irritant.

"We didn't show up today," said Cougars player/coach Kwame Steede. "PHC deserved to win, we didn't deserve to, so congratulations to them."

Steede tried to play down the effect of Friday night's shooting on Cougars. "We don't try and bring that sort of thing into the team," he said.

Though there was never any suggestion that the game not be played, the players talked about the incident prior to kick-off, and a subdued atmosphere hung over the crowd.

Even so, Cougars started the brightest and things might have been different if Kwame Steede's rasping drive in the opening exchanges had gone in rather than rattling the crossbar.

As it was the game descended into a rather scrappy encounter with both teams struggling to come to terms with a heavy pitch, still saturated from all the rain dumped on it on Saturday.

In the end, Cougars were masters of their own downfall, and Butterfield's needless foul on Bean led to the opening goal.

Chris Furbert whipped in a free-kick from the left hand side of the penalty area and Bean was able to flick the ball past Ricardo Brangman after making a late run that no Cougars defender picked up.

Things got worse for the home side just before half-time when a nothing ball out of the PHC defence led to confusion at the back for Cougars and while Brangman and his defenders left the ball to each other, Robinson nipped in and scored.

The second half followed a similar pattern with Cougars struggling at the back, and the unfortunate Butterfield could only turn the ball into his own net from a Fabian Frankson cross. To add insult to injury, Kijuan Franks was then harshly penalised for hand ball when he appeared to have been pushed into it, and Shae Smith put his side four clear with less than ten minutes remaining.

Devonshire Cougars: R.Brangman, J.Butterfield, K.Franks, I.Mallory, Z.White, S.Brangman, M.Steede, L.Simmons (M.Smith, 66 mins), L.Brangman (T.Steede, 55), K.Steede, K-V.Tucker. Subs not used: M.Doucet, D.Simons, K.Goddard, T.Smith, P.Evans.

Scorer: Mallory (90).

PHC: R.Glasford, C.Dowling, O.Shakir, S.Smith, F.Frankson, B.Bean, J.Sealey, C.Fubert, J.Raynor, K.Lambe (Q.Burgess, 61), C.Robinson (K.Lightbourne, 66). Subs not used: Q.Hunt, M.Lambe, D.Wilson, J.Franklin, J.Smith.

Scorers: Bean 30, Robinson 40, Butterfield (og) 61, Smith (pen) 83.

Yellow card: Raynor (PHC).

Referee: A.Francis

Man of the match: S.Smith (PHC)