(abandoned after 82 minutes) Any hopes Devonshire Cougars had of adding to their unbeaten five-game streak was derailed yesterday when their fans forced referee Rex Osborne to abandon this First Division game at Devonshire Rec. after 82 minutes.

A barrage of bottles thrown by irate fans when a goal netted by left full-back Maxwell Dill was denied, sparked what turned out to be the ugliest scene in local soccer this season.

The goal would have levelled the score at 1-1 after Colts had taken a 1-0 lead through Anthony Wilson after 10 minutes.

Osborne had already indicated a goal when he was alerted by Devonshire Colts players that linesman Lawrence DeShields had his flag raised for an infringement.

After consulting DeShields, Osborne instead gave a free kick and his decision sparked a violent response from angry fans behind the 15-foot wire fence at the western end of the ground.

Some 30 bottles were hurled onto the field and later when play was eventually abandoned the officials had to be careful to avoid being struck by more missiles thrown directly at them.

Earlier two fans ran onto the field and approached the referee and linesmen, but team and club officials moved swiftly to intervene and prevent what could have been a more serious incident.

Matters might have been worse had not the fence prevented more angry fans from taking a short cut to the game officials.

What occurred earlier on the field became almost insignificant. In fact, the lacklustre performance of Cougars may have contributed to the frustration of their supporters.

Colts were the sharper of the two teams throughout and once Wilson had put them ahead with a thunderbolt shot early in the game, the home team, suffering from a lack of support from their players in midfield, had trouble playing catch-up soccer.

Cougars main threats came from curling corners taken by veteran Dale Russell in the second half, forcing goalkeeper Randy Darrell to slap the ball away in desperation on at least three occasions.

Afterwards Cougars' assistant coaches Mark Jennings and VANBI Holdipp laid blame for the trouble on Osborne and DeShields, claiming that the referee should not have been influenced by the linesman.

"Rex has been fair and consistent for many years, but I couldn't understand what made him change his mind after signalling a goal,'' said Jennings.

Devonshire Cougars: L.Place; S.Coddington, S.Smith, D.Durrant, M.Dill; D.Brangman (J.Salaam, 75 mins), D.Russell, T.Smith (D.Bean, 60 mins); W.Salaam, P.Clarke, C.Campbell.

Devonshire Colts: R.Darrell; D.Williams, M.Hollis, J.Bean, A.Wilson; J.Samuels, S.Burgess, R.Jones (L.Symonds, 75 mins); E.Weldon, C.Smith (A.Zuill, 30 mins), K.Lawrence.

Referee: Rex Osborne Men of the match: Shannon Burgess (Colts); Darrid Durrant (Cougars).

MATCH ABANDONED -- Linesman Lawrence DeShields is escorted off the pitch by Cougars coach Mark Jennings (left) while referee Rex Osborne gives a look of cautious concern as he walks off with Leroy Wilson.