North Village 0 Devonshire Cougars 1

Devonshire Cougars moved into a tie for second place in the Premier Division after a first half goal settled a close encounter at Bernard Park yesterday.

A late surge by Village almost enabled them to snatch a share of the points when a shot in the dying moments from defender Jalen Harvey hit the crossbar.

“I think we made it hard for ourselves, we controlled the game and then late almost gave it away,” said Kwame Steede, the Cougars coach. “Luckily we didn’t concede but we had multiple chances to put the game away from early on.

“They had their chances but when we had our moments, we didn’t execute and that’s where we let them come back into the game.”

The moment that settled the points came around the quarter-hour mark when a ball into the box opened the Village defence for Battersbee to steer his left shot into the far bottom corner.

Village battled hard to get back on level terms but always lacked that decisive pass in the final third as Tahj Bell, their former goalkeeper who moved to Cougars this summer, wasn’t tested in the opening half-hour.

In the opening minutes of the second half a brave save inside the six-yard box by Omari DeShields, the Village goalkeeper, denied Cougars a second goal, after Daren Williams’ cross from the right forced DeShields into an important grab near the goal line, as two Cougars players closed in.

DeShields made another important save in the 61st minute when a shot from 25 yards by Chekai Caisey brought out a good diving save by DeShields to his right.

Minutes later Cougars had another chance to double their lead when a cross from the right found Domico Coddington at the far post but he side-footed wide from an angle with just the ‘keeper to beat.

Stricter Covid-19 protocols at football matches impacted a Cougars player when substitute goalkeeper Kioshi Trott left the players’ area during the half time warm-up to speak briefly with spectators behind the western goal and was not allowed by the match commissioner to return to the substitutes bench for the second half.

He did stand next to the players’ area, separated by a four-foot fence, but his shouting encouragement to his team-mates drew the attention of referee Martin Wyer who asked him to leave the area after speaking with the match officials.

The victory for Cougars, their third of the season, moves them into a tie for second place with PHC on eleven points.

SCORERS

North Village 0

Devonshire Cougars 1

M Battersbee 16

TEAMS

North Village (4-5-1): O DeShields 7 ‒ K Knights 6, T Fray 6, Q Lema 6, J Harvey 6 ‒ I Simmons 6, V Perinchief 6, J Smith-DeShields 6, D Daniels 6, J Bell 5 (sub: O Botelho 75 min) ‒ R Simons 5 (sub: P Smith 63, 5). Booked: Perinchief. Substitutes not used: T Brown, D Johnson, W Shakir.

Dev Cougars (4-3-3): T Bell 6 ‒ T Tucker 6, Z White 6, L Millett 6, J Thomas 6 ‒ M Battersbee 6 (sub: J Mouchette 79), Chris Caisey 7, Chekai Caisey 6 ‒ D Coddington 6, Z Morris 5 (sub: E Darrell 54, 5), D Williams 6. Booked: Tucker, Chekai Caisey, Subs not used: K Trott, J Furbert-Wade, K Minors, C Albouy, Zekiro White.

Referee: M Wyer.

*Robin Hood and Devonshire Colts played to a 1-1 draw on Saturday night at Goose Gosling Field.

In the lone First Division match yesterday, a rescheduled fixture from November 21, Young Men’s Social Club defeated Paget 3-1after two late goals broke a 1-1 deadlock late in the game.

Ryan Parris put social Club in front from the penalty spot in the fourth minute before Omari Darrell equalised in the 52nd minute.

Parris scored again in the 82nd minute to put Social Club up 2-1 before Jiniko Butterfield closed out the scoring with a third three minutes into injury time.