Flanagan’s Onions 2

Devonshire Cougars 2

Mark Steede, the Devonshire Cougars striker, struck a last-gasp equaliser to deny Flanagan’s Onions a victory in the Dudley Eve Trophy at Bernard Park yesterday.

Steede scrambled home in the final minute for his second goal of the game to ensure Andrew Bascome’s return to the Cougars’ dugout was not marred by a defeat.

Onions made a dream start to their maiden Dudley Eve Trophy competition when midfielder Nathan Peskett crashed in a audacious volley from long distance in the eleventh minute.

Five minutes later, Onions doubled their lead when striker Kevin Ronaldson dispatched a close-range volley past Kioshi Trott, the Cougars goalkeeper, after an excellent delivery from Vincent Minors with the outside of his right boot.

Cougars hit back almost immediately with Steede, ploughing a lone furrow up front, forcing the ball home after the Onions defence had repeatedly failed to clear their lines.

Seemingly buoyed by his superb opening goal, Peskett then tried his luck from distance again with a dipping effort that Trott tipped over the crossbar before being forced off with a hand injury sustained while making the save.

The scorching conditions appeared to sap the energy from both sets of players during a far cagier second stanza, with neither side creating much in the way of clear-cut chances.

Onions had their goalkeeper Stephen Gould to thank midway through the second period when he pulled off a fine double save from Moses Steede and Machi Battersbee to preserve his side’s slender lead.

Ronaldson was then presented with a difficult opportunity to add his second after a neat flick-on by Minors — making his Onions debut after moving from relegated Wolves — but blazed wildly over the bar.

With just seconds of the game remaining, Drewonde Bascome forced a diving save from Gould from a free kick, with the loose ball bouncing around the box before Steede forced it over the line to earn Cougars a point.

Bascome, the Cougars coach, said that he was reasonably pleased with his side’s display, considering he had been properly working with his new players only for the past two weeks.

“It’s good to be back at Cougars and, of course, my son [Drewonde] is there, so it made sense for me to return,” said Bascome, who was in charge of Cougars when they won maiden Premier Division and Friendship Trophy titles in 2004-05.

“We’ve only had two weeks preparation without any pre-season games, so I was reasonably pleased with how we played. I’ve made a couple of formation changes and I felt it was a pretty good start.

“The heat got to both teams; there was little pressuring the ball and low intensity.”

Bascome deployed Kwame Steede, a past Cougars player-coach, as a central defender against Onions, with the former Bermuda captain looking more than comfortable in the unfamiliar position.

“We’ve lost a couple of influential players, so I feel it’s best for Kwame to play in a position where he can see everything,” Bascome added.

“We’re set up so he can also attack from that position where it won’t hurt us.”