X-Roads 2 Devonshire Colts 4

Devonshire Colts celebrated the life of former player James “Jimi” Tweed before fighting back from two goals down to overcome X-Roads for a spot in the Friendship Trophy semi-finals at St David’s on Sunday.

Before the match a moment of silence was observed for Tweed, a former Colts defender, whose death was announced on Sunday morning. After the victory coach Ray Jones Jr spoke of Tweed’s impact on his playing and coaching career.

“James “Jimi” Tweed is a former team-mate and we played together when I broke into the team,” Jones said.

“He actually mentored me in my first few seasons before I went off to school, so it was some shocking news to receive this morning. It set me back a little bit mentally because he was a very close friend and a stalwart for the club in the 1980s.

“He was my assistant coach in my early days of coaching. It’s definitely a sad day but we did speak about it before the game and a few of the youngsters knew him from when he was my assistant.

“We wanted to do it for him and his family to bring some joy on such a day and I think this result will help us all during this sad day.

“He used to come and watch games and he would call me every Monday morning or sometimes Sunday night, either if he was at the game or saw the result just to continue to give words of encouragement.

“I’m going to miss that phone call because I valued his sharing with the team and what we could do better.”

The emotion of the day perhaps permeated through to the Colts players as Paul Simons struck in the fourteenth and 36th minutes to put X-Roads in the driving seat.

However, his brace was wiped out by goals from Mateo Isaac in the 40th minute and captain Jorj Dublin’s penalty in the 55th minute before Chemarl Henry and Senoj Mitchell ensured that Colts will be in the hat when the semi-final draw is conducted on Monday.

Jones was pleased with the fight displayed by his players in the second half.

“I’m happy with the effort and the goal was just to be in the cup for the draw tomorrow and we did that, so I couldn’t ask more of them,” Jones told The Royal Gazette.

“Since it’s a cup competition, I tried to warn the boys that it was more about the result than the performance. Prior to X-Roads actually scoring, we had quite a few chances and should have opened up our account.

“Even after conceding, I never felt we were out of the game and the goal from the set play gave us just enough belief going into the half.

“At half-time it was all about adjusting our emotions because I thought we were coming apart emotionally when we went 2-0 down. I told them to believe that if we get the ball in the flank areas we should be able to penetrate their defence.

“We got in the wide areas, came back inside and we created the chances to score three goals in the second half. I’m really proud of my players for giving me the performance that they did. They showed character by sticking together and we’re looking forward to the draw.”

With three of the top four teams in the Premier Division through to the Friendship Trophy semi-finals, Jones is anticipating a tough match no matter who his side is drawn against.

“If you look at who’s left, you’ve got Dandy Town in first, Colts third, Village fourth and Cougars sixth. It doesn’t make a difference, you just take the challenge as it comes.”

X-Roads coach Farid El Karfa was disheartened by the manner in which his team capitulated in the second period.

“I thought we started well with a good mentality and we were able to put some good chances away,” El Karfa said.

“That was the highlight of our first half and we scored two quick goals, which was good and an excellent effort from the team and from Paul.

“They were able to come back at the end of the first half to score a goal. In the second half, the game changed and we did not demonstrate the same mentality in the second half, which allowed them back into the game.

“We conceded some crazy goals due to a poor defensive performance in the second half and some easy goals could have been prevented. It gave confidence to the opposition once they scored the second and third goal and he game changed from that point.”

The first chance of the match fell for Colts when Dublin headed over from a free kick five minutes into the encounter. X-Roads goalkeeper Kamran Harvey then reacted swiftly to avert danger in the eighth minute by coming off his line to take the ball off Elisha Darrell’s feet.

Against the run of play X-Roads took the lead when Simons connected with Danavon Thompson's cross to get the ball past Jahniko Francis, the Bermuda sevens rugby star deputising in goal for the suspended Jaden Mills-Furbert.

Six minutes after conceding, Colts had a great opportunity to equalise. Jahzardae Samuels released Sage Blair-Paynter, but the big forward’s effort was excellently stopped by Harvey.

From a corner kick, Simons doubled the X-Roads lead when the ball bounced off a Colts defender and fell for the forward to strike from a tight angle on the edge of the box.

Colts pulled one back five minutes from the break when Isaac headed in from a Henry corner and ten minutes after the break, Dublin levelled the scores from the penalty spot after Zuhri Burgess was tripped by Justin Sousa.

Henry gave Colts the lead for the first time moments after Harvey had denied Mitchell in a one-on-one situation. Mitchell added a fourth with a long-range strike when the ball fell for him from a Burgess corner kick.

SCORERS

X-Roads: Simons 14, 36

Devonshire Colts: Isaac 40, Dublin 55 pen, Henry 58, Mitchell 78

TEAMS

X-Roads (4-2-3-1): K Harvey 6 — A Johnston 6, C Smith 6, J Sousa 6 (sub: K Brangman, 61min 5), J Bean 6 — K Douglas 6, T Daniels 6 — S McKittrick 6 (sub: K Richardson, 73), A Spencer 6 (sub: A Cajee, 61 5), D Thompson 6 — P Simons 7. Substitutes not used: R Simmons, J Lottimore, A Darrell, C Binnie. Booked: Douglas, Brangman

Devonshire Colts (4-3-3): J Francis 6 — S Burgess 6 (sub: D Ball, 87), J Dublin 7, D Davis 6, M Isaac 6 — J Samuels 6, Z Burgess 6, S Mitchell 7 — E Darrell 6, C Henry 7, S Blair-Paynter 6 (sub: K Burch, 65 5). Substitutes not used: A Hart, I Naylor, J Saunders

Referee: D Parchment (Jamaica).