Devonshire Cougars 1 North Village 1

Devonshire Cougars and North Village had to settle for a frustrating share of the spoils in their Premier Division title clash at Devonshire Recreation Club last night.

While Ralph Bean Jr, the Village coach, will certainly be happier than Dennis Brown, his opposite number, the real winners of last night’s stalemate were Somerset Trojans, the league leaders, and second-placed Dandy Town.

Village, who climbed to third in the standings ahead of Flanagan’s Onions on goal difference, arguably shaded the closely fought encounter and created the better of the scoring chances in the second half.

Jahquan Smith-DeShields, the Village striker, should have earned Village what would have been a precious three points when he found himself bearing down on goal with just the goalkeeper to beat in the dying moments.

Daniel Johnson, the Cougars goalkeeper, did well to narrow the angle by rushing off his line and then making himself big to deny DeShields’s effort, which lacked any real conviction.

Johnson had moments earlier pulled off another smart save from Jonathan Briers, making amends for an earlier fumble that enabled the Village midfielder to score his side’s equaliser on 54 minutes. Cougars took the lead on 34 minutes when Chris Caisey, the Cougars captain, showed good awareness to find Korvon Tucker on the edge of the box, the full back striking a first-time shot into the bottom corner.

Village levelled early in the second period when DeShields, whose waspish movement caused Cougars defence plenty of problems, delivered a cross from the right that Johnson parried into the path of Briers, who scrambled the ball home.

Although Cougars appeared far more defensively sound after the introduction of Kijaun Franks on the hour mark, they failed to force Troy Hall Jr, the Village goalkeeper, into a real save of significance after Briers’s leveller.

The closest the home side came to worrying the visiting side’s goal was when substitute striker Mark Steede sent an overhead bicycle kick harmlessly over the crossbar.

Bean admitted that he was satisfied with the point, which keeps his side within touching distance of Trojans, whom they face in another title showdown at Somerset Cricket Club on Saturday night.

“We’ll take a point as [Devonshire Recreational Club] is a tough place to come and get anything,” Bean said. “Both teams couldn’t really afford to drop any points, but I guess all things considered the result is better for us.

“I think we’re still in [the title race] and I’m quite sure the top five teams will remain in it until last game of the season. There are still a lot of points to be won and lost and although we dropped two points tonight we’re still very much in the race.”