Hamilton Parish 1 Devonshire Cougars 0

Dennis Brown, the Devonshire Cougars coach, slammed his players for a lack of commitment to training during the week after defeat at Wellington Oval eliminated them from the title race.

“You reap what you sow,” said Brown after Shayne Hollis’s goal after six minutes separated the teams and lifted Parish into a Dudley Eve spot ahead of PHC.

Last season’s triple crown champions are only now in contention to defend their FA Cup title, after Parish dashed their league hopes just like they did in the Friendship Trophy in December when they beat them in the semi-final.

“You can’t expect to turn it on the Sunday if you don’t put it in during the week and that’s what happened today,” said Brown, offering no excuses for the defeat.

He had expected his team to remain in contention for the league with a win yesterday, but mathematically they are out of it and may struggle to even finish in the top four.

“It is a shame, the time they put in last year to this year is no comparison.

“Everybody talks about wanting to be at the top but we’re not prepared to do the extras to stay at the top. You have to work harder to stay there and we weren’t prepared to do that this year.”

Cougars were deserving of a point after a frantic second half saw them created a host of chances but fail to capitalise as the Hot Peppers rode their luck to another upset victory that keeps alive their hopes of Dudley Eve qualification for next season.

A nicely taken goal by Hollis on Parish’s first real chance sent an early message to Cougars, when Hollis controlled Kneiko Richardson’s pass to him inside the box and steered his effort past Kioshi Trott in the Cougars goal.

Cougars had a goal disallowed by referee Kuhn Evans in the 31st minute when a free kick behind the Parish defence saw defender Kijuan Franks slip through and win a challenge against the advancing Nigel Burgess before steering the ball into an open goal. However, the effort was called back for a foul on the Parish goalkeeper, which drew the ire of the Cougars bench.

Good skill and vision by Bascome brought Cougars within inches of an equaliser in the 59th minute when he sent in a curling shot from the left edge of the box and the wind helped bring the ball back before hitting the far post. Minutes from time, good luck on the left by Moses Steede saw him cross to the far post where the sliding Franks failed to convert from just two yards.

“It gives us a chance to push ourselves to Dudley Eve next year,” said Kieshon Smith, the Parish coach.

“We have no problem getting up for the big teams, so now we can start moving forward.

“It was an excellent team performance today. We were also missing Ian Coke, but it was a well-taken goal by Shayne.”