North Village 1
Devonshire Cougars 0

North Village boosted their chances of a top three finish in Richard Todd’s first season as coach, after Pierre Smith’s tap-in just before the interval earned them a win at Bernard Park in their final match of the season.

Devonshire Cougars, who have an FA Cup semi-final with Robin Hood next weekend, wasted some good chances to finish above Village on a day when only two matches were played because of the heavy rain.

The pitch at Bernard Park held up against the heavy rain as Village broke the deadlock in the 41st minute when Zenawi Bowen supplied the cross into the box after a run down the right and Smith had the simple task of scoring from about a yard out.

A similarly good cross from full back Terryn Fray after a free kick almost set up a second goal for Village early in the second half but Bowen just failed to get a touch with goalkeeper Ricardo Brangman exposed.

A smart build-up by Cougars midway through the second half should have produced an equaliser when Cashun Brangman was sent through by Moses Steede’s return pass which stretched the Village defence, but he blasted first time over the bar as goalkeeper Jason Williams advanced. Keishen Smith, the Village captain, then poked a shot wide of an open goal with the goalkeeper off his line.

Cougars played the last ten minutes of the match with ten men when substitute Tomeko Mallory went off with a foot injury, with their three substitutes already used, including player-coach Kwame Steede who brought himself on midway through the second half in a bid to find the equaliser.

Both teams have already qualified for next season’s Dudley Eve Trophy tournament, an improvement for Village who finished outside the top six in the last campaign, while Cougars recovered after a slow start to finish comfortably in mid-table.

“This is an improvement on last year but I think we could have done better and internally we’re a little disappointed ourselves,” said Todd, who replaced Ralph Bean last summer.

Village failed to make a serious push for the league, after winning four of their matches in the second half of the season and finishing seventeen points behind champions Dandy Town. Even so, Todd feels there is something to build on for next season.

“There are some things we have to work on, mental aspects and changing the mindset of players,” Todd said. “But it’s good to finish on a positive note, we need to try to look forward to next season, to try to improve and take it one step further.

“Last year we were out of Dudley Eve and in a relegation fight, but we weren’t quite in that [this season]. Players have to be patient and continue to put in the work and if we do that we’ll continue to move forward. Mentally I think we need to be tougher to be able to handle periods of adversity.”

Cougars, by comparison, had a strong second half, putting together a good run of results to climb to mid-table safety. “We spoke about Cougars before the game, the characteristics they have, hard work, commitment and desire they bring, those are the areas I think we need to improve in order for us to become better.”

Steede, who replaced Andrew Bascome as head coach, achieved his main goal of avoiding the drop after sitting near the bottom of the table early in the season.

“I think it was a great season for us, especially with this probably being the youngest team in the league,” he said. “For some of them this is their first year playing in the Premier Division and a lot of people did write us off.

“I told everybody from the beginning that I believed in them and that I knew we weren’t going down. Mid-table to make Dudley Eve next year is a good achievement, now the FA Cup semi-final is a bonus.”