Devonshire Colts 4 Hamilton Parish 1

Promoted First Division champions Devonshire Colts pulled off a sensational victory to start the Premier Division season, thrashing Hamilton Parish at Devonshire Rec last night with an exhilarating brand of attacking football.

Chemari Henry scored a brace to take man of the match, leaving coach Ray Jones delighted with the outcome of his team’s performance.

“I am happy with the result especially the way we played the first half as there were many phases that looked like the exact thing we created on the training pitch and the opportunities we created to score goals,” Jones said.

“Outside of their one goal, we didn’t give them many chances, even though we played the entire second half with ten men. I am even happier that we were able to dictate possession and penetrate against Parish, who are a good team and came into this game on a high.

“This is a good start so I gave the guys off tomorrow [Tuesday] but back in training on Wednesday to prepare for the derby against Cougars on Friday.”

The match started at a very quick tempo as Colts threatened on a quick counter-attack with Keino Burch slipping the ball to Henry, whose first-time shot was blocked by the advancing Parish goalkeeper Nigel Burgess. Zion Simmons headed the resulting corner at the custodian to sound an early warning.

At the other end, Parish threatened from a free kick when Quinn Outerbridge glanced a header for Macquille Walker to run on to, but his firm drive was cradled by goalkeeper Jaden Mills-Furbert.

It did not take Colts long to break the shackles and the opening goal came from a goalmouth scramble with the initial shot being blocked twice before captain Teniko Eve blasted the loose ball into the roof of the net.

Colts would double their lead within minutes when Shannon Burchall held off his marker after being put through to beat Burgess with a well-placed shot into the corner of the net.

Colts were capitalising on Hamilton Parish’s defensive vulnerability as Burch continued to penetrate down the left flank and their dominance paid off with a third goal just after the half-hour when Henry’s shot went through two defenders’ legs into the back of the net, leaving custodian Burgess shocked by the outcome.

Colts had one blemish in the game when two dangerous tackles by centre half Simmons caused him to take an early shower seconds before the half-time whistle.

Despite the one-man disadvantage, Colts continued the onslaught as Henry scored his second and the team’s fourth within five minutes of the restart when he outran his marker to slot past the advancing Burgess.

Within a minute, Walker pulled one back for his team when he converted from close range to give Parish a glimmer of hope, but that never came as the goalscorer received his second yellow card for a careless tackle.

He was followed back to the changing rooms by team-mate Zuhri Burgess, who was also dismissed for a second cautionable offence late in the game forcing Parish to finish the match with nine players with referee Amaury Majors kept busy as he handed out 11 cards in total, including to Colts coach Jones.

SCORERS

Devonshire Colts: Eve 11, Burchall 22, Henry 32, 50

Hamilton Parish: Walker 51

TEAMS

Devonshire Colts (4-2-3-1): J Mills-Furbert 6 — J Paynter 6, J Dublin 6, Z Simmons 5, D Davis 5 — M Selassie 6, J Burgess 6 (sub: R Weldon, 83min) — C Henry 8 (sub: A Van Duyne, 82), T Eve 7, K Burch 7 (sub: D Ball, 68 5) — S Burchall 7 (sub: R Urquhart, 46 5). Substitutes not used: C Berkeley, S Blair-Paynter, I Greaves. Booked: Burgess, Davis, Urquhart, Selassie. Sent off: Simmons

Hamilton Parish (4-1-4-1): N Burgess 6 — J Bean 5, M Hill 5, Q Outerbridge 5, K Knights 5 — Z Burgess 4 — J Bell 6, G Burgess 5, A Nelson 5, L Lewis 6 — M Walker 5. Substitutes not used: None. Sent off: Walker, Z Burgess.

Referee: A Majors.