Devonshire Cougars 4 X-Roads Warriors 2

Devonshire Cougars finished off their season by fighting back to beat X-Roads at Devonshire Rec on Saturday night.

The victory means Cougars finish fifth, a spot ahead of the Warriors and coach Mark Mills feels his side could have done better but was happy with the last result.

“We had a mediocre season but we finished off well,” he said.

X-Roads opened the scoring when Cougars’ captain Zari Simmons turned the ball into his own net from an attempted clearance after Krishun Douglas had headed Kahmori Brangman’s free kick at the back post.

Cougars recovered from the early setback when X-Roads goalkeeper Chiquon Smith misjudged Mikel Thomas’s long ball forward. The ball bounced over Smith’s head, which allowed Kydan Browne to run around him and slot into the empty net.

Within a minute, Thomas created the go-ahead goal when he released Mosiais Mills down the right flank. His first-touch picked out the onrushing Browne, who easily side-footed beyond Smith to give the home team a 2-1 lead at the half.

X-Roads found the equaliser shortly after the restart when captain Paul Simons played the ball wide to Danavon Thompson. Thomas tried to intercept the return pass only for the ball to roll into the path of the prolific scorer, who buried his shot pass the flat-footed Chaz Knight in the Cougars goal.

In the 80th minute, Cougars took the lead after the Warriors defence failed to clear Charmari Burns’ cross. The loose ball fell to Christian Albuoy, who kept his composure to side-foot into the bottom right corner beyond Smith’s outstretched arm.

The evergreen Domico Coddington scored the fourth when Browne unselfishly played the ball into his path for an easy tap-in after being put through from a long pass by Burns.

With time ticking down, Coddington was brought down inside the box by Smith to present Browne with the opportunity to finish the season off with a hat-trick from the penalty spot, but Smith did well to dive to his right to deny his effort.

Despite the loss, X-Roads coach Farid El Karfa, who formed part of the national coaching set-up for the friendly against Democratic Republic of Congolast month, was positive about his side’s season.

“Our main goal was to survive on our return to the Premiership and we did that,” El Karfa said.

“We will do some recruiting in the off season to have more depth so that we don’t face some of the challenges that we had this season.”

SCORERS

Devonshire Cougars: Browne 35, 36, Albuoy 80, D Coddington 86

X-Roads Warriors: Simmons og 16, Thompson 51

Teams

Devonshire Cougars (4-2-3-1): C Knight 6 ― T Tucker 6, J Thomas 6, L Millett 5 (sub: J Bell, 63min 5), Zion Simmons 5 (sub: C Brangman, 77) ― Zari Simmons 6 (sub: Q Darrell, 88), M Thomas 7 ― C Burns 6, K Browne 7, M Mills 6 (sub: C Albuoy, 63 6) ― D Coddington 7 (sub: K Steede, 88). Booked: Mark Mills (coach)

X-Roads Warriors (4-2-3-1): C Smith 6 ― T Dill 5, S Somner 5 (sub: A Davis, 54 5), T Daniels 6, C Smith 6 ― C Binnie 6 (sub: C Attridge, 88), K Douglas 6 ― K Richardson 5 (sub: R Simmons, 78), P Simons 6, K Brangman 6 (sub: J Dill, 88) ― D Thompson 6. Substitutes not used: A Darrell. Booked: Binnie

Referee: K Pennyfeather (Antigua and Barbuda)