A goal down and a man short after 29 minutes, it didn't look good for home team Deovnshire Cougars in this Coca Cola First Division match last night.

But derby matches have a way of bringing out the best in teams and pride certainly counted for something as Cougars battled the odds to earn a deserved point.

Village made a good start when they took the lead in the 29th minute through a Sean Dill penalty. It was awarded after Nakia Smith's shot was saved by Leon Place and Dill's shot from the rebound was handled on the line by Cougars captain Kenneth Swan.

The red card was shown to Swan by referee William Bradley and Dill then calmly scored from the spotkick.

Village had a second goal ruled out in the 41st minute when midfielder Michael Hansey smashed in a left-footed volley at the far post to a corner on the right, but just as he was connecting with the shot, the whistle was going for a foul on Place.

Action was plentiful in front of the large crowd as Hansey drove a shot just wide early in the second half before a through ball put Dill clear of the Cougars defence only to see him lob his effort over the top as he spotted goalkeeper Nyon Steede off his line.

Cougars got back into the game from the penalty spot in the 55th minute when the whistle was blown for a foul on Clevie Campbell. A linesman's flag stayed up and after consultation, Bradley allowed the penalty to stand and Wali Salaam beat Steede with his low shot.

The goal came just seconds after Philip Clarke came on to replace Trevor Smith and against his former team he made a quick impression as Cougars begam to control the game.

Defender Sheldon Caisey, booked in the first half, came close to scoring when he sent in a freekick from the centre circle that hit the crossbar after Steede was caught off his line.

Steede committed a fatal error two minutes later when he palmed down a harmless ball inside the box, rolled the ball to the edge of the box and then picked it up. From the freekick 15 yards from goal, Caisey rammed the ball into the back of the net.

Unfortunately for Cougars their hopes of an upset was to last just two minutes before Nakia Smith pulled Village back level at 2-2 when he scored following a freekick on the right side.

Cougars: L.Place; W.Martin (D.Trott 85min), K.Swan, S.Caisey, M.Dill; S.Coddington, W.Salaam, G.Dyer, T.Smith (P.Clarke, 53min), G.Butterfield (R.Swan 75min), C.Campbell.

Village: N.Steede; K.Grant, D.Bell, K.Dill, R.Spencce, N.Smith, M.Hansey, L.Raynor (K.Simons 66min), S.Dill, J.Smith, K.Jennings.

Referee: William Bradley.

Men of match: Sheldon Caisey (Cougars), Michael Hansey (Village).

Wolves 5 Ham. Parish 0 Four goals in the final 10 minutes lifted Wolves to their first win since the opening day of the season.

Parish were holding their own at that point with only Nathan Webb's 46th minute strike separating the teams.

But suddenly things fell apart for them as Joey Rego made it 2-0 with a brilliant freekick from outside the box that went in off the crossbar.

Dion Wainwright added the third three minutes later and then Parish's Leroy Robinson was sent off for throwing kicks at Wolves sub Ricky Nesbitt, who responded with two strikes of his own... in the form of goals in the 87th and 88th minutes to close out the scoring.