North Village 1 Devonshire Colts 2

Police made their way into Bernard Park shortly after Devonshire Colts stunned champions North Village in the first match of the Premier Division season last night.

Goals in either half from Teniko Eve and Elisha Darrell handed Colts victory. Jonté Smith pulled one back in the last quarter of the match, but Village were unable to get anything on a night they were celebrating playing their first home league game under floodlights.

When the match ended, there were running battles between players from both teams and some fans. In the ensuing free-for-all, Seke Spence, a non-playing member of the Village team, was floored.

Colts coach Ray Jones, while not pleased with the way his team played, was delighted to pick up maximum points against a team that took away six points against his side last season.

“It was probably not the prettiest performance in the end, but the main thing was to come away with the points,” Jones told The Royal Gazette.

“I think we had a few good spells; in the first half we were a bit wasteful. We should have had more than one goal in that opening half.

“Village started well and we weathered the storm. We got a bit of flow and that’s why we went ahead.

“In the second half, we were trying to get on the outside and when we did that, we got our second goal. Unfortunately, we didn't defend a long ball. We knew they were going to go long because that’s what they do.

“We invited pressure on ourselves and because we had already made the three subs, players on the pitch had to stay.

“But this is what we wanted, to come here and come away with the three points, so we’re happy with that positive start to the league campaign.”

Commenting on the scuffles after the match, the Colts coach’s thoughts were that some extra enthusiasm from both sides could have been a contributory factor.

“It must be the passion of the game,” he said.

“I know they wanted to do well for the fans, and for us we hadn't beaten them in a couple of years. We were up for it because we wanted to bring their dominance to an end, and I think some of it spilt over.

“A lot of the players know each other, so I’m sure that after everybody has calmed down, everything is OK.

“I don’t encourage it and we’re not going to lay down, either. We’ll deal with that in the changing room.”

Colts were forced into an early change when Jahkeylo Burgess was taken off the field on a stretcher and later transferred to hospital. He went down after coming into contact with the fence, leading to a five-minute stoppage.

“It looks like he might have fractured his ankle going into the fence,” Jones said.

“He was taken to hospital and we’ll find out later on his situation.”

Colts opened the scoring in the 21st minute as Eve pounced from close range after Detre Bell spilt a Senoj Mitchell’s initial attempt.

On the half-hour mark, Eve almost doubled the lead but Bell stretched well to stop the forward from rounding him.

Four minutes later, Che'Kai Casey watched as his shot went agonisingly wide as Village searched for an equaliser.

On the other hand, Bell took the ball off Mitchell's feet while Village appealed for the offside flag to go up.

Darrell doubled the Colts lead in the 57th minute when he was given space to take a shot with his left and beat Bell at the far post.

Smith headed in a perfect ball from Ian Simmons in the 73rd minute to give Village a fighting chance. However, the champions never managed to salvage something out in the remaining minutes.

SCORERS

North Village: Smith 73

Devonshire Colts: Eve 21, Darrell 57

TEAMS

North Village (4-1-4-1): D Bell 6 — K Harrison 6, R Sampson 6, Q Outerbridge 6, J Harvey 6 — T Williams 6 (sub: K Scott, 60 5) — J Outerbridge 6 (sub: A Dill, 60 5), L Steede-Jackson 6 (sub: T Outerbridge, 60 5), J Chapman 6 (sub: I Simmons, 44, 6; M Paynter, 90), C Casey 6 — J Smith 7. Substitutes not used: P Smith, T Tucker. Booked: Sampson, Simmons, Scott.

Devonshire Colts (4-4-2): J Mills-Furbert 6 — J Paynter 6, J Dublin 7, J Burgess (sub: J Bean-Lindo, 17 6) S Burgess 6 — Z Burgess 6, E Darrell 7, D Ball 6 (sub: S Robinson, 60 5), S Mitchell 6 — C Henry 6, T Eve 7 (sub: J Samuels, 69 5). Substitutes not used: S Blair-Paynter, D Jackson, F Lema, S Tatem. Booked: Darrell, Robinson.

Referee: S Maybury.