Devonshire Cougars 4

Dandy Town 1

Devonshire Cougars finally launched their title defence into life with a four-goal drubbing of Dandy Town at Devonshire Rec. last night.

Once again it was 'captain fantastic' Kwame Steede who led the charge as he continued his phenomenal scoring spree with goals either side of half-time.

It was through their skipper Cougars took the lead with Steede heading home Darius Cox's fizzing free-kick from deep midway through the first-half.

It is a combination that has bore fruit many times already this season with Cox's flatly taken free-kick's appearing to have radar-like knowledge of Steede's location in the box.

Ralph Bean, who had been ineffective during the first half, showed his class on 70 minutes when he latched onto a slide-rule pass from midfield, taking one touch before dispatching the ball past Jason Smith from just inside the area.

But the Hornets, who had enjoyed patches of possession without ever looking penetrative, hit back immediately through substitute Heys Wolfe following a frantic goalmouth scramble after Seion Darrell's rasping drive had rattled the crossbar. The goal seemed to give the Hornets another lease of life with Cougars having to retreat deep inside their own half so to soak up the pressure.

But Cougars, always dangerous on the counter-attack, killed the game off when Steede wriggled his way through a melée of markers before applying a neat left-foot finish from just outside the six-yard box in the later stages.

In the final minute Steede then turned provider for his younger cousin Tumaini Steede who finished off a free-flowing move to leave Hornets shell-shocked. After all, only minutes earlier they felt they were within a sniff of an equaliser.

Skipper Kwame Steede said of the victory: "It's certainly a relief to get our first league win out of the way. Two straight defeats and a draw wasn't the way we wanted to start, but this win gives us something to build upon.

"It wasn't a perfect performance and there's still things for us to work on."