Hamilton Parish 2 Devonshire Cougars 1

Devonshire Cougars coach Kwame Steede has conceded that his side’s Premier Division title challenge is over after they lost to Hamilton Parish at Wellington Oval on Saturday.

Early goals from Quinn Outerbridge and Macquille Walker earned Parish a fifth win of the season, while for Cougars, whose only goal of the match came from a Domico Coddington penalty, are now third in the league and trail leaders PHC by six points and North Village by five points.

Steede will now turn his attention to the FA Cup, with Cougars having secured a spot in the semi-finals.

“The league’s over for us,’’ Steede said. “We’re strictly going to focus on the FA Cup as I can’t see the top two teams letting up at this point of the season.

“We choked too much so we have to have the league as preparation for the FA Cup. That’s the lovely thing about the Cup, it’s special because anybody can win it.”

As far as the Parish defeat is concerned Steede felt that his side took to long to get into the game.

“We have to take the losses like we take the wins,’’ Steede told The Royal Gazette.

“Individual mistakes is what hurt us. Even though the level is not the highest level in Bermuda, it still hurts you when you make the mistakes.

“Our adjustment was too slow to the elements, the wind and everything else. Once we adjusted, we got the goal before the half, but it just didn't work out for us.”

Sergio Goater, the victorious Parish coach, was pleased with the effort put in by his players.

“It was a lot of hard work because we played against a top team today,’’ Goater said.

“Cougars are really good so we just had to dig in. It’s a good confidence booster and it shows that we can compete and beat them, so our guys now believe.

“Four games to go for us and we've got PHC next, which is another tough game. We also have Social Club, Somerset and X-Roads. We have 18 points now and those four games should solidify us in the league.”

Parish picked up the precious three points while playing with Phillip Burgess as the only substitute on the bench.

“The guys that played had to step up to the plate and really grind,’’ Goater added.

“Leroy [Lewis] is in England, Kyle [Wade] was sick this morning, Samario [Valasse-Paul] was suspended, and we have a Seventh Day Adventist player who can’t play on a Saturday.”

Parish made a bright start when Outerbridge headed in from a Justin Bell corner in the fourteenth minute. Bell was involved again in doubling the lead a minute later, his brilliant work on the left saw him deliver the ball into the box with Samuel McKittrick passing it to an unmarked Walker, who made no mistake.

Cougars did manage to settle down and the comeback was on when they got a goal three minutes before the break after Rory McKittrick handled the ball inside the box. Coddington made sure his side went into the break with a reduced deficit.

At the start of the second half, Parish almost had a third goal only for Walker to take his time to take a shot at goal after receiving a delightful cross from Kyan Trott.

Cougars laid siege on the Parish goal in the dying stages of the match, but failed to find the equaliser. Jecoa Thomas had his effort go over the bar before Demetre Daniels hit the post.

SCORERS

Hamilton Parish: Outerbridge 13, Walker 15

Devonshire Cougars: Coddington 43 pen

TEAMS

Hamilton Parish (4-2-3-1): N Burgess 6 – R McKittrick 6, M Turner 7, K Knights 6, Q Outerbridge 7 – M Hill 6, A Nelson 6 – S McKittrick 6, J Bell 8, K Trott 6 (sub: P Burgess, 77min) – M Walker 7. Booked: Bell, R McKittrick, S McKittrick

Devonshire Cougars (4-3-3): K Darrell 6 – J Fox 6, L Millett 5, Z White 6, J Thomas 6 – D Simmons 6, D Daniels, S Burrows 6 (sub: M Joell, 79) – L Simmons 6, D Coddington 7 E Darrell 6. Substitutes not used: N Simons, M Thomas

Referee: S Bowman (Canada)