Devonshire Colts 5 X-Roads 1

Chemarl Henry and Senoj Mitchell both scored twice to ensure Devonshire Colts bounced back from a shock midweek defeat to St George’s with a comprehensive win over X-Roads at a muddy Police Field on Sunday.

Victory means Colts are still in the thick of the title race, three points behind league leaders Dandy Town but with a game in hand, and Colts head coach Ray Jones was pleased with his side's response after a disappointing run of performances.

“This is a solid bounce-back as you can be in your feelings after a disappointing result,” Jones said.

“Our effort hasn’t been there the last few weeks but the energy was spot-on and it was our best performance in the last three games. When we scored the third goal, you could see the immaturity. They pulled one back and then we picked it back up and put two more in at the end.”

Colts made a fast start as Elisha Darrell fed a through ball into the path of Chemarl Henry inside a minute, but he pushed Christian Smith as he tried to latch onto the ball.

It took less than ten minutes for the home side to make the breakthrough when Henry turned provider with a threaded ball for Darrell, who cut inside and finished past the dive of Warriors keeper Kamran Harvey.

Daniel Ball then curled a Colts free kick from just outside the area around the Warriors defensive wall, but Harvey was equal to it.

Immediately after that, X-Roads striker Paul Simons was fed through by Aaron Spencer before cutting back for Danavon Thompson to shoot over the bar. However, Simons was just offside in the lead up to that chance.

X-Roads were pressing high up the pitch in the driving rain and Colts struggled to play through them as the first half became sloppy.

The direct approach was key for any fleeting X-Roads attacks, with Thompson using his frame to bring others into play. However, their best attacks came largely from set pieces.

After an early setback to their defensive shape when San-Tze Burgess went down with an apparent hamstring injury and was replaced by able deputy Deszion Davis, Colts doubled the lead five minutes after the substitution.

Henry played inside for Darrell, who took his time before finding Mitchell's clever cutting run from the opposite flank. He fired past Harvey to give the title challengers a cushion.

Mitchell drew a penalty just before half time when he was tripped by X-Roads defender Tyler Dill but Jorj Dublin failed to keep his nerve in the rain and smashed the post from 12 yards.

Into the second half, Elisha Darrell and Senoj Mitchell forced Harvey into a magnificent double reflex save on the hour before the two combined 14 minutes later for Colts' third goal. Darrell whipped in a beautiful cross from the right and Mitchell powered his header into the ground past Harvey.

X-Roads reacted well to the concession of a third goal and Thompson rolled past Davis with ease two minutes later before smashing past Colts goalkeeper Jaden Mills-Furbert.

But they could not make further inroads and Henry killed the game for Colts with two goals in stoppage time.

Keino Burch set up his first with a cutting pass through, allowing him to take the ball around Harvey and finish into an unguarded net. He then tapped home a rebound after the initial strike by Mitchell was well saved by Harvey.

SCORERS

Devonshire Colts: Darrell 9; Mitchell 31, 74; Henry 90+1, 90+3

X-Roads: Thompson 76

TEAMS

Devonshire Colts (4-3-3): J Mills-Furbert 6 — D Ball 7 (sub: K Burch, 79min), J Dublin 6, S Burgess 4 (sub: D Davis, 26 6), J Paynter 6 — Z Burgess 6, J Bean-Lindo 5 (sub: D Jackson, 65 5), S Robinson 6 — C Henry 8, E Darrell 7, S Mitchell 8. Substitutes not used: T Eve, J Saunders, R Whitter, A Van Duyne. Booked: Paynter

X-Roads (4-2-3-1): K Harvey 7 — J Bean 6, E Abranches 6, C Smith 6, T Dill 5 (sub: S McKittrick, 57 6) — T Daniels 5, K Douglas 5 (sub: R Simmons, 76) — A Spencer 6, P Simons 6, K Richardson 5 (sub: K Brangman, 57 5) — D Thompson 6. Substitutes not used: C Binnie, A Darrell. Booked: Joao Abranches, Spencer

Referee: A Majors