Devonshire Cougars 0 Robin Hood 0

Devonshire Cougars played with “the heart of a lion” to salvage a point against Robin Hood in an entertaining goalless draw at Devonshire Recreation Club yesterday.

Playing with ten men for nearly an hour, the point allowed Cougars to leapfrog Paget Lions and Boulevard to move out of the relegation zone.

Boulevard have a game in hand after they had their match against PHC Zebras postponed out of respect for their former goalkeeper Ronniko Burchall who was killed last week.

With the draw, Hood missed out on the opportunity to go two points clear at the top.

“We showed heart and fought for everything,” Omar Butterfield, the Cougars coach, said. “Going down to ten men so early helped blend us together. We gritted our teeth and dug deep. Chae [Brangman] kept us in the game as he was able to hold the ball up front and cause damage every time.

Brangman, back from college, was involved in most of Cougars’ attacks and was a terror with his size and dribbling skills.

He made his presence felt as early as the second minute when he made a run down the right with Hood captain Jaylon Bather applying pressure.

Brangman was able to get a cross in which was headed over the top by Jasekani Furbert-Wade. Lejuan Simmons replied soon after for Hood when he laid off a pass to Tomiko Goater but his volley sailed over the top.

Cougars captain Zeko White nearly gifted Hood an opening when he lost possession in defence which allowed Joseph Pereira to slip the ball to Goater for a one-on-one with Cougars goalkeeper Lovince Tota. However, the striker shot straight into the goalkeeper’s chest.

Brangman combined with Furbert-Wade with a give and go but fired over from within the penalty area. Brangman almost scored when his shot from a blocked free kick was cleared off the line by Pereira.

The game was evenly poised until Cougars were reduced to ten men in the 21st minute when Demetre Daniels committed his second reckless foul and was shown the red card. This forced Cougars to change their attacking formation as they had to drop one of their forwards into the midfield to cover for Daniels.

The second half started as it ended with Hood having most of the chances. Luck was on Cougars’ side when Simmons unleashed a drive that goalkeeper Tota got a fingertip to as it rattled off the upright and returned into his hands. Simmons followed up with another attempt only to have Tota make a point-blank save with Phillip Parsons hitting the rebound wide.

In the 82nd minute, Simmons lost his temper and was red carded for retaliation after being fouled by Cougars defender Darren Williams who was cautioned for his tackle. He then had to be separated after a minor altercation with the Cougars bench as he walked to the dressing room.

In the final minute, Hood had an appeal for a penalty fall on deaf ears as Casey Castle looked to have been brought down in the area.

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-1-2-3): L Tota — D Williams, N Carmichael, Z White, C Maybury — Damian Simmons — D Daniels, Zari Simmons — Chae Brangman, J Mallory (sub: J Mouchette 57 min), J Furbert-Wade (sub: A Douglas). Substitutions not used:

Nyeem Simmons, Wayne Sinclair, D Spenser-Robinson, Cashun Brangman. Booked: Chae Brangman, D Williams. Sent off: Daniels.

Robin Hood(4-1-2-3): D Eve — J Pereira (E Outerbridge, 76), J Bather, D Williams, C Castle — P Parsons — A Nelson (sub: C Ryan 66), T Goater — S Smith, A Russell (sub: Liam Evans 58), L Simmons. Substitutions not used: D Andrade, T Bean, L Symonds, Z Burgess, C Ricca. Booked: Smith, Nelson, Sent off: Simmons.

Referee: A Francis.