Devonshire Cougars 3 Young Men’s Social Club 1

Three-times winners Devonshire Cougars put their name in the hat after defeating spirited Young Men’s Social Club 3-1 in this entertaining FA Cup match played at Devonshire Rec last night.

The game started evenly poised with each team having a threatening attempt in the opening ten minutes.

Josh Hardtman volleyed Trey Tucker’s low cross just wide off the upright but Cougars would open the scoring with Bluebirds goalkeeper Ryan Evans picking the ball out of his net with nearly his first touch.

Kamali Davis and Domico Coddington interchanged passes before the latter played an inch-perfect cross into the path off Demitri Daniels, who placed a powerful header beyond the Social Club custodian without breaking stride.

Social Club went in search off an equaliser and nearly scored but Cougars goalkeeper Q’Shai Darrell was alert to make a point-blank save from Hardtman after an attempted clearance rolled into his path.

Shortly before the half, Social Club captain Ryan Parris forced Darrell to push his firmly driven free kick over the top to keep the clean sheet intact.

Cougars should have scored immediately after the restart when captain Parris miscontrolled a pass to allow Davis a free run at goal, but the striker would curl his shot wide under pressure from the advancing Evans.

Minutes later, Darrell did well to push Parris’s free kick around the post for a corner as it took a tricky bounce at the last minute.

The Bluebirds continued to run at their host and their persistence paid off.

Substitute Pierre Smith darted down the right flank before unleashing a thunderbolt from 25 yards, which goalkeeper Darrell could only parry into his net to level the scores.

Coddington had an opportunity to put Cougars ahead when he was put through and dribbled towards goal, only to take one too many touches and denied by the defence.

Davis had been a terror to the Bluebirds defence all night, and it would be his hustle that led to the go-ahead goal when he capitalised on a defensive mix-up between goalkeeper Evans and defender Jinario Johnson to nip in, keep his composure and plant his shoot into the net.

With time running down, Christian Albuoy would put the result beyond doubt when he scored from the penalty spot after Coddington was brought down to give referee Anthony Francis one of his easiest calls of a cold night.

SCORERS

Devonshire Cougars: Daniels 10, Davis 79, Albuoy 90

Young Men’s Social Club: Smith 68

Teams

Devonshire Cougars (4-2-4-1): Q Darrell 7 — J Thomas 6, L Millett 6, Z White 6, J Brimmer 5 — M Thomas 6 — D Coddington 6, S Burrows 6 (sub: Z Simmons, 81), D Daniels 6, K Davis 7 — C Brangman 5 (sub: C Albuoy, 41 6). Substitutes not used: S Jones, C Burns. Booked: J Thomas.

Young Men’s Social Club (4-2-3-1): R Evans 6 — T Butterfield 5, R Parris 6, Kelvon Butterfield 6, K Singh 6 (sub: A Matthews, 63 5) — J Johnson 5, M Rudo 6 (sub: J Seymour, 57 5) — T Tucker 6, J Mallory 5 (sub: B Swan, 85), M Wilson 5 (sub: P Smith, 57 6) — J Hardtman 6. Substitutes not used: K Gilbert, Keshun Butterfield.

Referee: A Francis.