North Village 5 Devonshire Colts 1

Holders North Village kept their FA Cup defence on track after coming from behind to beat newly crowned First Division champions Devonshire Colts in their quarter-final at Bernard Park yesterday.

Village were forced to chase the tie after forward Chemarl Henry put Colts out in front with an exquisite finish.

However, their lead was short-lived as Village equalised two minutes later from a Tre Ming free kick before striker D’Andre Wainwright struck twice to earn Village a 3-1 advantage at the interval.

Ming grabbed a second just past the hour mark before substitute Pierre Smith came off the bench to round off the scoring seven minutes from the end.

“We expected a Colts team that has quality and would test us and fight, and they showed a lot of spirit throughout the game,” Village coach Kenny Thompson told The Royal Gazette.

“They started well and scored a good goal to go ahead, but I think we responded well and it’s pleasing again for the second week in a row to score a lot of goals. I think our response was excellent.

“Every Sunday the main aim is getting the result but when we can do it with a bunch of goals then it makes it that much more satisfying.

“Congratulations to Devonshire Colts for winning the First Division and getting promoted. They showed that they deserve it. They have a lot of quality and we expected a really tough game.”

Colts coach Ray Jones cited a litany of errors for his team’s demise.

“Today was a day of errors,” Jones said.

“If you actually replay the game, four out of their five goals came from errors from us and not anything that they actually produced, which is more heartbreaking than anything,” he said.

“I’m not taking anything away from their Village performance. They play at a higher level so if we make errors they jumped on them and they punished us for them, and that’s the lesson that was learnt today.

“As far as the effort, I can’t doubt the boys. They pushed right to the end but again even at the end we gave up two errors which resulted in goals. Just when we felt we had something that we can maybe nick and get back in the game we go and give up two errors.

“Today was an error-prone day and I think that was the difference between the two sides. I think physically we showed that we are on this level because we were able to push to the end and at times we actually had some good combination play.

“It’s the FA Cup and we gave a good account of ourselves. The scoreline might not reflect that but it is what it is and congratulations to Village and good luck to them and the rest.”

Both teams created early chances before Henry put Colts ahead. The forward latched on to Keino Burch’s through pass and turned his marker before firing into the bottom right corner.

Ming equalised shortly after when his free-kick from outside the box beat Colts custodian Gregory Rose, who appeared to be blinded by several players right in front of him.

Village then grabbed the lead for good when Ming dummied Jaizel Smith-DeShield’s pass into the area which Wainwright dispatched with his left foot.

The experienced striker grabbed a second just before the interval when he buried Smith-DeShield’s flick on from Tarreko Wilson’s diagonal pass, again from close range, to send Village into the dressing room at the break with a two-goal advantage.

Village pulled farther away after the restart when Smith-DeShields intercepted Rose’s intended pass inside the box and fed Ming, who slotted in at the near post.

Smith then capped the home side’s emphatic display when he tapped in fellow substitute Adio DeShield-Tankard’s pass from close range.

SCORERS

North Village: Wainwright 24, 41, Ming 22, 61, Smith 83

Devonshire Colts: Henry 18

TEAMS

North Village (4-2-3-1): D Bell 7 – J Harvey 7 (sub: J Outerbridge, 76min), K Knights 7, R Sampson 7, T Wilson 7 – L Evans 7 (sub: L Steede, 80), K Harrison 7 – T Williams 7, J Smith-DeShields 8 (sub: A Deshield-Tankard, 80) T Ming 8 (sub: V Perinchief, 80) – D Wainwright 7 (sub: P Smith, 60 7). Substitutes not used: I Simmons, T Bean. Booked: Wainwright.

Devonshire Colts (4-4-2): G Rose 6 – D Davis 6 (sub: S Burgess, 63 6), J Dublin 6, A Van Duyne 6, J Paynter 6 – D Ball 6, I Naylor 5 (sub: Malahku Selassie, 46 6), K Burch 6 (sub: J Jackson, 63 6), Moziah Selassie 6 – C Henry 7 (sub: S Paynter, 84), S Tatem 6. Substitutes not used: T Smith, J Mills-Furbert, T Burgess, A Hunt, D Jackson.

Referee: C Sobers (Trinidad).