Devonshire Cougars 5 St George’s 2

Devonshire Cougars have secured a third-place finish in the Premier Division with a 5-2 win over FA Cup finalists St George’s at Devonshire Rec on Sunday.

Elisha Darrell was the catalyst behind the win with a well-taken hat-trick as his speed tormented the St George’s defence throughout the match and Cougars’ stand-in coach Mark Smith was happy with his team’s display of attacking.

“Tonight we saw the old Cougars,” Smith said. “We had good all-round performances from Elisha [Darrell] and Domico [Coddington] with their attacking ability. Our defence was solid so I am quite pleased. We are aiming to finish as high as we can and tonight we played with no pressure hanging over our heads and played to our standard.”

St.George’s should have opened the scoring directly from the opening whistle when the ball was played wide to DeQuan Lodge down the right flank but his low cross was miskicked by Manoj Paynter in front of goal.

After weathering the opening minutes, Cougars opened the scoring with Darrell opening his account when a low, driven corner from Lejuan Simmons was fumbled by goalkeeper Zeko Burgess and he was first to the loose ball to stab into the net.

The lead would last only for a few minutes before Blaiz Hall was given room to shoot with Cougars goalkeeper Kenneth DeSilva opting to stick his boot out instead of the traditional diving save and the ball nestled in the bottom right corner.

Darrell scored his second when he capitalised on a failed clearance to blast the ball into the roof of the net to give his team the lead just before the breaj.

Darrell completed his hat-trick when he dribbled down the right flank to set up Jayori Fox for a first-time shot but the ball would bounce off the upright into his path for a simple tap-in.

St George’s goalkeeper and international cricketer Burgess gifted Cougars their fourth when he failed to hold on to another corner, which resulted in a goalmouth scramble before Coddington blasted home from close range.

St George’ scored their second from a goalmouth scramble of their own with Manoj Paynter keeping his composure to lob DeSilva. The Cougars goalkeeper redeemed himself with a spectacular, full-length dive to deny Ari Cannonier’s thunderbolt from 18 yards to keep the two-goal advantage.

Coddington would close out the scoring when he converted from the penalty spot after Fox was bundled over in the box.

SCORERS:

Devonshire Cougars: E Darrell 11, 40, 46, D Coddington 60, 74

St George’s: B Hall 17 M Paynter 70

Teams:

Devonshire Cougars (4-2-3-1): K DeSilva 6 — L Simmons 6 (sub: L Millett, 60min 5), Z White 6, J Schroeder 6, J Thomas 5 (sub: Z Simmons, 84) — D Daniels 6 (sub: J Wade, 83), M Thomas 6 — J Fox 6, S Burrows 5 (sub: J Brimmer, 46 5) E Darrell 8 (sub: N Simmons, 84) — D Coddington 8.

St. George’s Colts (4-2-3-1): Z Burgess 6 — N Paynter 6 (sub: J Carlington, 89), E Signor 6, A Simons 6, A Cannonier 6 (sub: J Salaam, 81) — K Hall 7, D Bascome 6 — D Lodge 5 (sub: G Wade, 46) B Hall 7, M Paynter 7 (sub: C Ottley, 89) — O Bascome 6. Substitutes not used: J Brangman. Booked: N Paynter, B Hall.

Referee: R Villanueva (Canada)