Devonshire Colts 3

St. George's 0

After the disappointment of the Dudley Eve Trophy, Devonshire Colts were granted the ideal remedy yesterday - a home fixture against St. George's, the bottom side in the Premier Division.

The margin of victory was unsurprising but the news that their team have gone top of the table, after results went in their favour around the Island, will put smiles on the faces of Colts fans to last the week.

Colts rarely needed to take their game out of second gear at White Hill Field as they were pitted against a St. George's side who, barring the undeniable talents of Herbie Bascome and the prompting of Kyle Williams on the left flank, showed little evidence that they have the ability to win the fight against relegation.

Lloyd Holder and Clevon Hill gave Colts a deserved lead at the half and a Shannon Burgess penalty with seven minutes remaining completed the scoring in an uninspiring match that neither side should wish to remember.

When moments of quality did peek from behind the clouds on a damp day, it was mostly in the favour of Colts who, in Kuma Smith, possessed the player of the match.

Keenan Burchall missed the first real chance of the match in the 12th minute when he blasted over after pouncing on a half-cleared ball by Neil Paynter. But, before he had time to feel sorry for himself, Colts were ahead.

Holder raced clear of the St. George's three-man defence for the first time and scored with a confident drive after Troy Hall, the St. George's goalkeeper, could only parry the initial shot.

Hall, who would prove to be the significant difference in keeping the scoreline to a degree of respectability, produced a fine double save to deny Smith in the 16th minute and his counterpart at the other end, Andre Hendrickson, needed to be equally sharp to turn a Jarreau Hayward shot for a corner six minutes later. Such forays by St. George's were few and far between as Smith ran the show from the midfield.

The second goal that Colts' superior play merited came on 29 minutes when Hall came for and missed an Aberdeen cross from the right, leaving Hill with the task of holding off his marker to head home from five yards.

St. George's improved significantly in the second half and had moments when they could have made Colts pay for sitting back. But only one shot on target tells a damning tale.

Within 90 seconds of the restart, Hayward was played in behind the Colts offside trap but shot narrowly wide under pressure from the advancing Hendrickson. And in the 55th minute, Mackie Crane headed woefully over after a Williams cross found him unmarked at the back post.

Hayward looked set to score when he beat Hendrickson from 15 yards after taking a Crane pass, but McKonnen Hollis tracked back well to avert the danger. From that point, St. George's were clearly second best.

Hall kept the visiting team in the game with a string of good saves but there was little he could do about the third goal after Ernest Signor conceded as obvious a penalty as there could be with a hard foul on Hill.Devonshire Colts: A.Hendrickson; Jermaine Belboda (G.Gibbons, 81 mins), M.Hollis, S.Burgess, Jermel Belboda; K.Smith, C.Durham (M.Bean, 61 mins), K.Burchall; L.Holder, C.Hill, Q.Aberdeen (J.Dill, 71 mins). Substitutes not used: K.Bean, J.Aberdeen.

St. George's: T.Hall; D.Signor, N.Paynter, U.Fox; D.Bailey, H.Bascome, R.Steede (K.Moreno, 71 mins), E.Signor; K.Williams, J.Hayward, M.Crane. Substitutes not used: M.Bowen, K.Dill, K.Butterfield, D.Robinson. Booked: Fox.

Men of the match: K.Smith (Devonshire Colts); T.Hall (St. George's).

Referee: Gregory Simons.