Devonshire Cougars 4 Hamilton Parish 3

Devonshire Cougars will be playing in the Premier Division next year after playing out this entertaining, seven-goal thriller against a stubborn Hamilton Parish outfit last night.

In doing so, Cougars nudged the Dudley Eve Trophy champions closer to the relegation door, with only three matches remaining.

After coming from behind twice, elder statesman Domico Coddington scored two late goals including the stoppage time winner to see off their Crawl Hill opponents who played the second half with ten men after Zuhri Burgess was shown a second yellow card in the 29th minute of the match.

Cougars coach and club president Kwame Steede was happy with the outcome.

“We showed character tonight,” stated Steede. “We were down 2-0 at the half but never gave up. Shout-out to the team and the subs who had an impact in the outcome of the game to come back and win 4-3.

“We knew Parish would come at us in the position they are in. Mathematically, they are still in it so I knew they were going to come at us hard and fast. We did well to steady the ship and come out on top.”

Parish jumped into an early lead. Justin Bell played a no-look pass to Quinn Outerbridge down the line and his first-touch cross was met in the centre by captain Mauriq Hill for an easy side-foot into the net before Cougars could settle into positions.

Cougars should have equalised within minutes when Coddington made a darting run down the right flank but Kamali Davis mishit the cross to give the Parish goalkeeper Sean Burgess an easy save.

This was immediately followed by Parish’s Gianni Burgess blasting over the top from close range after good ball control and pass by Macquille Walker.

Cougars began to settle with two good opportunities to score. Burgess had to be at his best to push Davis’s dipping free kick against the crossbar before Elisha Darrell’s cross took a deflection off a defender to hit the upright and bounced to safety.

Parish’s Zuhri Burgess was given a second yellow card in the 29th minute to leave Parish to play the rest of the game with ten men.

Despite the one-man deficit, Parish refused to back off and would double their lead from a beautiful set-piece when Yeferson Ramirez’s free kick from 20 yards froze Cougars goalkeeper Q’Shai Darrell as it curled into his top left corner.

Cougars should have pulled one back within minutes when, first Makai Thomas forced Burgess into stretching full length to make a one-handed save with the rebound by Darrell blocked for a corner.

With first half time ticking down, Thomas blasted over the top from just inside the box and Burgess denied Davis with a point-blank save as Parish preserved the two-goal lead at the half.

Cougars would pull one back in the 53rd minute from Che’Kai Caisey’s brilliant solo effort. After dribbling the ball through the midfield and holding off multiple defenders, he looked up to pick his spot before side footing into Burgess’s open right corner beyond the outstretched hand off the diving custodian.

Cougars started to capitalise on the one-man advantage pushing the extra body forward but Parish goalkeeper Burgess was having a stellar performance denying many Cougars’ threats with body and hands.

Parish restored their two-goal lead when Walker executed a perfect cross for Kion Knights to run onto and drive home without breaking stride to make the score 3-1.

Cougars kept the energy high, and Davis reduced the deficit to one with a low drive past Burgess from the angle and then equalised when Coddington beat the offside trap from a Davis pass before faking Burgess to commit to a shot then blasted into the empty net.

Not to be outdone, Jordan Outerbridge hit a firm drive that smashed against the crossbar, with Quinn Outerbridge blasting the rebound over from close range.

Jordan Outerbridge thought he had preserved the one point when he made a goalline clearance after Burgess missed an inswinging corner but with the match going into stoppage time substitute Christian Albuoy received a diagonal ball forward before crossing to Coddington in the middle off the pitch.

With time running down, Coddington broke the hearts of the stubborn Parish unit after receiving a pass in the centre from substitute Christian Albuoy and planting his shot beyond the advancing Burgess to seal the points.

SCORERS

Devonshire Cougars: Caisey 51, Davis 73, Coddington 77, 90+2

Hamilton Parish: Hill 3, Ramirez 38, Knights 67

TEAMS

Devonshire Cougars (4-2-3-1): Q Darrell 6 — Brimmer 5 (sub: Brangman, 85), White 6, Millett 6, J Thomas 6 — M Thomas 6 (sub: J Wade, 82), D Daniels 5 (sub: S Burrows, 65 5) — E Darrell 6 (sub: Albuoy, 65 6) Caisey 6 (sub: Mills, 85), Davis 7 — Coddington 7. Substitutes not used: N Simmons. Booked: Davis, White, Caisey.

Hamilton Parish (4-2-3-1): S Burgess 8 — J Outerbridge 7, Hill 7, Ramirez 7, Bean 6 — Z Burgess 5, Q Outerbridge 6 — Knights 6 (sub: Trott, 86), G Burgess 6, Bell 6 — Walker 6. Booked: J Outerbridge, Z Burgess. Sent off: Z Burgess.

Referee: T Simons.