Devonshire Colts confirmed their participation in the Dudley Eve Trophy competition, disposing of an error prone Wolves at White Hill Field yesterday.

A controversially awarded first half penalty strike by Shannon Burgess, combined with second half strikes from Damon Ming and Jermaine Belboda, put paid to the visitors' hopes of victory and all but extinguished their chances of qualifying for the holiday tournament.

And, with PHC losing at home to North Village, Colts catapulted from fourth to second on 12 points, while Wolves' dropped to fifth, trailing Dandy Town on goal difference -- both have nine points.

Wolves' chances of qualification now rest with a Village win by two goals or more over Town tomorrow night, when the pair face off in a make-up match.

Yesterday's affair at the spacious west end ground unfurled as a fast-paced match from the opening whistle, although the direction the pair of adversaries aimed their aggression came in for much question early on.

The first opportunity for an advantage fell at the feet of Colts' Aljame Zuill in the 14th minute, but the slender striker fired inches wide of the left upright after outstripping the defence and surging into the penalty area.

Zuill was later to be sent off near the end for a second bookable offence.

At the other end John Barry Nusum, fresh off a starring role for Furman College, muffed a volleyed opportunity after Shaki Crockwell supplied a right side cross.

Misfortune struck the visitors in the 22nd minute, when centre-back Jamel Warren appeared to be unjustly penalised by referee Irven Simmons for handling in the area when the ball looked to have come off the palm of Colts' forward Marvin Belboda.

Nevertheless, Burgess duly accepted the pre-Christmas cheer, slotting his spot kick low into the left corner as goalkeeper Corbin Durrant went to the right.

Nusum came within a whisker of drawing Wolves back to level terms, his lobbed header over Kevin Bean, in goal for Colts, just cleared off the line by a recovering Dennis Zuill.

After sleep-walking through the first half, Wolves fell into an even deeper slumber to start the second, and Colts made sure of the nightmare with two quick strikes.

Damon Ming doubled the advantage in the 54th minute, benefiting from a severe blunder on the part of Durrant, who allowed the diminutive forward's speculative 35-yard attempt to slip through his grasp.

Five minutes later Jermaine Belboda settled the issue beyond doubt, glancing a right-wing cross from Quincy Aberdeen past a bewildered Durrant.

Wolves finally awoke, with Nusum pouncing on a Bean fumble to stab the ball home from in close, but it was clearly not to be their day.

"It seems like the mentality of my team is that we need a do-or-die situation to perform,'' said Colts captain Burgess afterwards. "First half we played pretty good and battled with them, but we never really settled down in the top third of the field, which we needed to do. But we finished, and you can't expect much more from guys if they're putting the ball in the back of the net, because I've seen times when we've played really well and lost or drawn, due to our not finishing.

"So, to get the result was the important part. Now we have to regroup and figure out how we're going to settle down, because the Dudley Eve's a pretty intense tournament, and we have to be more constructive going forward.'' Devonshire Colts: K.Bean; K.Simpson, S.Burgess, D.Zuill, J.Simmons; K.Burchall, J.Belboda, Q.Aberdeen (C.Hill 70 mins); D.Ming, M.Belboda (J.Aberdeen 87 mins), A.Zuill.

Wolves: C.Durrant; C.Smith, D.Sharrieff, J.Warren, T.Forth (L.Stevens 48 mins); A.Thomas, T.Davis, J.Peniston (A.Outerbridge 61 mins); S.Crockwell (N.Webb 61 mins), N.Smith, J.Nusum.

Referee: Irven Simmons.

Men of the Match: Jamah Simmons (Devonshire Colts); Jamel Warren Yellow cards: Kevin Simpson, Marvin Belboda, Damon Mind, Aljame Zuill (Devonshire Colts); Jared Peniston, Trevor Forth, Cory Smith, Jamel Warren, Nathan Webb (Wolves).

Red card: Aljame Zuill (Devonshire Colts).

Irven Simmons: awarded a controversial first half penalty.