Devonshire Cougars 2

PHC Zebras 0

PHC's title defence was left hanging by a thread on an evening when Devonshire Cougars emerged as genuine championship contenders.

The Cougars faithful flocked to the Den last night to watch their side secure their first home victory of the season, thanks to goals from Domico Coddington and skipper Kwame Steede.

Although both strikes were more than a touch fortuitous, no-one could argue that they weren't richly deserved with Devar Boyles' men dominating a poor, poor PHC from start to finish.

Cougars were gifted an opener at the end of the first half when Zebras keeper Jay Smith slipped when coming to collect Steede's hopeful through ball, presenting Coddington with the simplest of tap-ins.

While their second goal, just after half-time, saw a free-kick from deep inside Cougars' own half force Smith into a desperate tip onto the crossbar, with the ball bouncing invitingly into Steede's path for a neat finish.

Steede, who is not usually renowned for his tracking back and pressure play, gave a full-hearted performance that encapsulated Cougars' impressive start to life under new coach Boyles.

Organised, disciplined and hungry, Cougars are starting to demonstrate all the qualities that made Kyle Lightbourne's PHC such a dominant force last term.

For Steede, the secret to their early season success has been discovering their 'team harmony'.

"I think the biggest difference between us so far this season and last season is that we've found our harmony," said Steede, whose side are still unbeaten in the league this season and are now top of the table

"Team harmony is the platform from which you build upon and things like our discipline and hunger has come from that."

He added: "It was a really big game for us tonight and it was important we won. But we're just taking one game at a time and we'll see where that takes us by the end of the road."

As for PHC, it seems they have fallen foul of a form of football amnesia and forgotten all the things that made them so formidable during their memorable 2007-8 campaign.

For the Zebras' fans sake, they'd better regain their memory soon or their team's 'end of the road' could be just around the corner.

n Somerset Trojans beat Wolves 2-0 in last night's First Division match at Devonshire Rec.

Devonshire Cougars: R. Brangman, D. Cox, O. Butterfield (M. Smith 85), J. Butterfield, R. Robinson, K. Steede, K. Tucker, M. Steede (A. Mallory 50), D. Coddington (T. Steede 75), K .Franks, S. Brangman

Subs: A. Ingam, L. Brangman,

PHC: J. Smith, J. Ball (K. Lewis 45), C. Dowling, O. Shakir, K. Richards, I. Barry, B. Bean, S. Givas, C. Furbert, J. Raynor, C. Robinson

Subs: R. Glasford, M. Lambe, K. Lightbourne, A. Grant, K. Lambe

Referee:

A. Mouchette

Yellow cards:

S. Astwood (PHC)

K. Lewis (PHC)

A. Mallory (Cougars)

Man-of-the-match:

D. Cox (Cougars)